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WITH DEWEY 
AT : : MANILA 



DEING the Plain Story of the Glorious Victory of 
the United States Squadron Over the Spanish 
Fleet Sunday Morning, May ist, 1898, 
as related in the Notes and Cor- 
respondence of an Officer 
on Board the Flagship 
Olympia 



Edited by THOMAS J. VIVIAN 



R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 

9 AND II EAST i6th street : : NEW YORK 



CopyriRhl, 1898 
R. F. FKNNO & COMPANY 



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TWOC OEIVED- 



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i<^9. 



TABLE OF CHAPTERS 

CHAPTER I. PAGE 

Waiting for the Order 7 

CHAPTER II. 
TLe Scene of the Tragedy 17 

CHAPTER III. 
Running tbe (iauntlet 30 

CHAPTEPi IV. 
The First Round 46 

CHAPTER V. 
All Hands Piped to RreaUfast 62 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Beginning of tbe End 85 

ADDENDA. 
Rear Admik.xl Dewey's Recokd 97 



WITH DEWEY AT MANILA. 



CHAPTER I. 

WAITING Foil THE ORDER. 

We had been simmeiiug and stewing in 
steamy Hong Kong ever since March 28, wait- 
ing and waiting for instructions to swing across 
the China Sea to Manila. Eear-Admiral Dewey — 
he was Commodore Dewey then — was as anxious 
and impatient as the rest of us, and I could see by 
the way in which he fumbled over the charts 
and paced up and down the bridge with his 
weather eye turned to the shore that he expected 
such an order from Washington at any moment. 

We knew that the relations between the United 
States and Spain were at snapping-point ten- 
sion, and we knew too, that as soon as that 
break occurred the two opposing Asiatic squad- 
rons would be in the thick of the trouble. Our 
waiting work was not, however, confined to sim- 
mering and fretting, for during the days between 
April 18 and April 21 there was much done in 
the work of stirring preparation. 



8 With Dewey at Manila. 

Early on the morning of the 19th, for instance, 
the cari)enter of the Olympia received orders to 
mix up his war paint, and in a short time after, 
the painters' planks were swung out and a crowd 
of our Jackies was covering thew-hite sides of the 
flagship with a dull dark drab ; ugly enough to 
look at, but admirably adapted for concealing a 
fleet from observation. A "AVhite Squadron" is 
well enough for spectacular purposes in times of 
peace, but it is far too showy for war times, and 
especially for service in these sun-lit seas where 
the glistening sides of white war craft can be 
seen against the furthest horizon. The least vis- 
ibility is what Ave wanted and we took a leaf out of 
Russia's book in using the drab, the commanders 
of the Czar's ships having found it to be the l^est 
concealing color in the paint lockers. AVhile the 
Ob'mpia was being painted the same work was 
going on along the sides of the other shii>s, and 
by nightfall of the 20th our six vessels were all 
of the same uniform dull gray. The Baltimore 
had not arrived then, but when she came in on 
the 21st she had scarcely' anchored before she 
too put on her Avar i)aint. 

Another sign of Avhat was to come was fur- 
nished by the Commodore some days ago. The 
English steamer Nanshan had just arrived with 
three thousand three hundred tons of Cardiff 





Bashee Channel 
Bashee;:Is. 

bavat©; 

^ ,. /?Batan Is. 

BaUntang Cnannel 

^Claro Baditvam 

BABUYAN JSLANDS 
DALUPtRt<?o jCamicuah 
Bau(Km/i!?5,.ia /%C- Engano 

. Ft. Dil)e( 
^ Santiago 

S. Ci 



P H 1 L I P P I JMi u <^->: 




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, /)Catanduanes I 



LrNACAPAN^ " j *'~X ' 



■Jll 



JMAJ" <JK CHINA SEA, SUO\VIN(; MIKS KAY, AND THK DISTANCE TO MANILA 




With Dewey at Manila. 9 

coal on board and, knowin^L? that as soon as war 
broke out England would declare her neutrality 
and we should not be able to coal from the Hong 
Kong wharves, the Commodore quietly sent over 
the fleet paymaster to the consignees and he as 
quietly purchased from them the entire outfit, 
ship, coal and all. So, too, when the steamer 
Zafiro of the Manila-Hong Kong line came into 
this port she was bought out as she floated, with 
all her fuel and provisions. On board the Zafiro 
we shipped all our spare ammunition so that she 
really became our floating magazine. 

It was feared at first that we might have some 
trouble in manning these two steamers, but the 
original crews seemed only too glad to re-ship 
under the Stars and Stripes. Lieutenant 
Hutchins was sent over to the Nanshan, and En- 
sign Pierson was placed in charge of the Zafiro, 
both fellows grumbling at the assignments, be- 
cause, they said, it meant that they would be 
huddled off into some safe corner Avithout any 
chance of being in the midst of the scrim- 
mage. 

On the IHth the lookouts reported the Hugh 
McCulloch, and when the little revenue cutter 
came in with her whistle tooting, and the spray 
dancing up and down her yacht-like bow, the 
men of the squadron sent up a yell that brought 



10 With Dewey at Manila. 

every sampan man out of covei* to see what had 
happened. 

"Now the squadron is safe," said Captain 
Gridley, with his queer smile. 

All the same, the little revenue cutter did 
good service, and if she had been allowed her 
way would have done something during the ue^t 
week that would have made her the most-talked- 
about boat in the world. 

The McCulloch was on her way to San Fran- 
cisco, having been making the tour of the world 
across the Atlantic, down the Mediterranean, 
through the Suez Canal, and so across the Indian 
Seas to Singapore. She belongs, it is true, to 
the Treasury Deiiartmeiit, but in times of na- 
tional exigency the president has the right, and 
the power, to muster all revenue cutters into the 
navy. It was at Singapore that Captain Daniel 
B. Hodgson received his orders to joiu the Com- 
modore, an order that sent up the enthusiasm of 
the cutter's officers to fever heat and the caps of 
her crew into the air as high as they could pitch 
them. 

It was thought for a time that we might use 
the old Monocacy Avhich lies at Shanghai, but 
after looking her over it was decided that she 
would be a drawback to the exi)edition, and so 
she was left in the river and lies there still. Her 



"With Dewey at Manila. 11 

crew was broken up and three officers and fifty 
men were brought here and distributed around 
the fleet. 

As all the world knows diplomatic relations 
between the United States and Spain were 
broken off on the 21st of April, war being de- 
clared on the 25th, and within the next fortj'- 
eight hours our squadron, in obedience to a polite 
intimation from the Governor-General of Hong 
Kong, steamed away from that British possession 
up to Mirs Bay, a little Chinese roadstead a few 
miles to the north of the island. 

On the 2Gth of April the McCulloch, which we 
had left at Hong Kong, came racing up to Mirs 
Bay, bringing McKinley's famous order: 

"Washingto>i, April 26. 
"Dewey, Asiatic Squadron : Commence opera- t/ 

tions at once, particularly against the Spanish 
fleet. You must capture or destroy them. 

"McKlNLEY." 

"When the Commodore read the dispatch he 
closed up his lips with his characteristic snap: 
"Thank the Lord* " he said " at last I've got the 
chance and I'll wipe them off the Pacific 
Ocean." 

Everybody knew what the "them" referred to. 
Ever since we had heard of the blowing up of 



12 With Dewey at Manila. 

the Maine every man in the squadron had been 
fighting mad, and wanted only one thing — to get 
at the Spaniards. I believe, too, that there was 
not a soul in the fleet but would have most 
piously and earnestly said "Amen" had he heard 
the Commodore's exclamation of thankfulness. I 
know I did. 

Consul AVilliams came up on the McCulloch 
also with dispatches. He had hurried out of 
Manila when things grew too hot, and on the 
quiet intimation from Governor-Ceneral Au- 
gusti that his life was in danger. He brought 
us much interesting information, but notliing 
that was not overshadowed by the president's 
order. 

The news spread like lightning throughout the 
fleet, and when the Commodore's signal went up 
calling the commanders over to the 01ymi)ia for 
counsel and orders, a cheer went up such as old 
Mirs Bay never heard before — the cheer of full- 
throated American tars who knew that fighting 
Avas at hand and that at last they wouhl have a 
chance to show how well they remem])ered the 
Maine. At exactly two o'clock in the afternoon 
of April 27, 1808 — it is just as well to be exact 
Avhen the making of history is concerned — we 
ran up the Commodore's sailing pennant and 
steamed out of Mirs Bay, Avith every shiji's nose 



With Dewey at Manila. 13 

pointed straight across for the six hundred 
and twenty-eight-mile run to the Philippines. 

We were nine vessels in all, made up as follows: 
The Olympia (flagship), a second-class protected 
cruiser; the Baltimore, also a second-class pro- 
tected cruiser; the Boston, also a second-class 
protected cruiser; the Raleigh, of the same size 
and class as the Boston ; the Concord, a partially 
protected gunboat; the Hugh McCulloch, a steel- 
clad revenue cutter, turned into a gunboat; the 
Petrel, a small gunboat; and the two transport 
ships, the Zafiro and the Nansban. The proper 
place in which to speak of the sipiadron's arma- 
ment, tonnage, weight of metal and other fight- 
ing qualities will come later, when a comparison 
between the American and Spanish fleets is more 
immediately necessary to a descrijttion of the 
battle, and this condensed list is given here in 
order to fix the individuality of our ships in the 
mind of the reader. 

We appreciated the fact that the Spanish fleet 
was far more numerous than ours, and tbough 
we were not definitely sure as to its exact num- 
bers we did know that it embraced the five 
cruisers the Eeina Christina, the Castilla, the 
Velasco, the Don Juan de Austria, and the Don 
Antonio de Ulloa. It is true that many of the 
Spanish cruisers were old-fashioned, and it is also 



14 With Dewey at Manila. 

true that the Commodore did not have a single 
armored vessel in his squadron, not even an 
armored cruiser. There is no better place, too, 
in which to mention another fact, this: that we 
were moving down on the enemy's base ; that our 
defeat meant being six thousand miles away from 
supplies or succor; while to the Spaniards defeat 
meant an easy falling back on a port of relief. I 
say this here because since the victory at Manila 
I have seen a number of criticisms whose tenor 
has been to minify the victory on the ground of 
the disi>arity l)etween the fighting machines. It is 
true again that the president's order to the Com- 
modore was to "capture or destroy" the Spanish 
fleet, but I venture to say that not even the most 
sanguine Jacky of ours ever anticipated a 
complete annihiliation of the enemy, or that we 
should come out of it scatheless. What I wish 
to make clear is that while we were going into 
battle with what may be called a jaunty swift- 
ness, it was not for one moment imagined that 
we would come out of it as jauntily. AVe thought 
we were in for a hard fight, and as the factors in 
the fight piled up in numbers and gravity that 
impression became all the stronger. 

As soon as we sighted the Philippine coast the 
Boston, Baltimore, and Concord went ahead on 
scout duty. First of all they looked in at 



With Dewey at Manila. 16 

Bolinao Bay, but no trace of the Spanish fleet 
was to be found there. Subig Bay, some thirty 
miles from Manila, was next apjiroached. This 
was cautiously done, for the latest reports 
brought by Williams were that Admiral Montojo, 
commanding Spain's Asiatic fleet, had ])lanned 
to do us battle there. 

The only craft found at Subig Bay, however, 
were two small schooners, coasters, with two of 
the most ludicrously ignorant creAvs it lias ever 
been my fortune to meet. They did not know 
of the existence of any Spanish fleet; they did 
not even know where Manila was, and I believe 
that had the cross-questioning been i)ut further 
they would have declared they did not know 
where the Philippines were. With the Si)anish 
fleet at neither Bolinao nor Subig it became 
evident that JMontojo had changed his mind and 
had determined to make Manila Bay the fighting 
ground. When the result of the scouting was 
reported to the Commodore he said: "Yery well 
then, Manila it must be." 

It was six o'clock on the evening of Saturday, 
April 30, when we left Subig Bay— a hot, moist 
evening— and as we steamed slowly down the 
coast the sun dropped into the sea like a copper 
ball. But instead of the quick-coming tropical 
night there was a great yellow moon hung in the 



16 AVith Dowey at aManila. 

sky. Orders were signaled along the fleet to 
slow down until the moon set, and when she did 
so all lights in the fleet were guarded, the men 
were called to quarters, and everything was 
ready for slijipiiig into IManila 'i^ay. 

A descri])ti()n of the fight that was ahout to 
come so thoroughly involves a description of the 
setting in which the great sea tragedy was to be 
acted out, that it will bo necessary here to set 
down as ]tlai7ily as i)Ossible just what ^Nlaiiihiliay 
is like, togetlier with some necessary and perti- 
uent facts concerning the Philippines. 



"With Dewey at Manila. 17 



CHAPTEK n. 

THE SCENE OF THE TRAGEDY. 

If you were in the basket of a war balloon and 
were to look down on the Bay of Manila you would 
see that it is a land-locked or pear-shaped body 
of water, with the stem end pointing toward the 
sea. It lies about square with the compass, being 
thirty miles from north to south and twenty-five 
miles from e.ist to west. At each side of the en- 
trance to the bay rise steep volcanic mountains 
covered with dense foliage, and which constitute 
the two ends of the coast range of mountains. 
On the in-shore side, these mountains slope down 
to a plain which sweeps all round the upper part 
of the bay. On the flattest part of this plain and 
directly opposite the entrance to the bay, from 
which it is situated about twenty-six miles, lies 
the cit^' of Manila. 

Manila has been called the Venice of the East- 
ern Seas, its Venetian title being due to the fact 
that it is traversed by a number of waterways, 
the largest of which is the Pasig Eiver, which may 
be called a sort of Grand Canal. The waterways 



18 With Dewey at Manila. 

cut lip the whole extent of the city into a number 
of islands, while the Pasig is the dividing line 
between Old and New Manila, the latter city 
being locally known as Binondo. When I was 
first there, which was soon after the great earth- 
quake of 1880, the old town was strewn with 
ruins, but these have been leisurely cleared away, 
and the place, except for the war preparations, 
has resumed its normal aspect. 

Old Manila is one of the most nearly perfect 
examples of an Hispano-Oriental walled city that 
I have ever seen. It is surrounded by mediaeval, 
moss-covered fortifications which are as jiictur- 
esipie as they are useless from the standpoint of 
modern Avarfare. On the parapets of these forti- 
fications still stand, I am told, the glistening 
array of harmless old smooth-bores that have 
been there for hundreds of years. 

In the walls are a number of gates, each with 
its drawbridge and porticullis; all amply able to 
withstand the advance of an army of bowmen, 
but all absolutely worthless against a single 
rifled cannon. The principal gate to the old 
fortifications is the Entrada, and before it and 
along the city walls stretches the Luneta, a well 
laid out fashionable promenade, where military 
bands play, or used to play, two or three times 
a week. Across the city stretches a broad ave- 




PACO 



JtfANILA, THE CAPITAL OF THE PHILIPPINES, ITS STREETS AND SUBURBS 



With Dewey at Manila. 19 

nue named Legazbi, aftei' the lieutenant of the 
great navigator Magellan, Avho I'ouuded Manila 
in 1571. 

It is always hot in Manila. There are varying 
degrees of heat, it is true, but at the lowest de- 
gree of temperature it is hot — hot and moist. 
The sheet-iron roofs and the bare backs of the 
natives glistening in the sun make it look hotter. 
"When the city was built its founders bore in lov- 
ing minds the narrow streets of the old Iberian 
towns, and so Manila's streets are narrow and 
stuffy; and as the sidewalks are still narrower 
and built for one, and as it is a constant jostle to 
get along them, they are stuffier even than the 
streets. 

The houses are low and generally plasterless, 
due to the fact that the interior lining of the 
rooms is cloth, the rending of this by the con- 
stantly occurring earth. luakes being unpleasant to 
the ear, it is true, but not so uncomfortable or 
dangerous to the occupants as the falling of slabs 
of plaster. Most of the windows in the old town 
are not windows at all, but simjily holes in the 
walls tilled with a sliding shutter in which are 
set thin, translucent sea-shells, so that through 
them a dim and slightly opalescent light filters 
in. 

So deadly flat are the sandy isles on which Ma- 



20 With Dewey at INraiiil.i. 

nila is built that it is scarcely more thau a foot 
above high water. The water in the moats is so 
sluggish that it is little better thau a mass of 
weeds, and as to drainage, there is strong evi- 
dence to the senses that there is none. All the 
houses are damp, so damp indeed that no one 
thinks of sleeping on the ground Hoor. Most of 
the living is done in the second story, while in 
the first or ground floor the Philippino keeps his 
store or his stable. Upstaiis live the house 
snakes which are to Manila what the dogs are to 
Constantino] lie, the unlicensed scavengers of the 
city. They are <iuite harmless to mankind, al- 
though it takes some time for the stranger to 
become accustomed to the eight or nine feet of 
reptile, wriggling after the rats, which are the 
snakes' legitimate supply and one of the manj' 
pests of ]\Ianila. So many and so tierce are these 
rats that if it were not for the snakes Manila 
would be overrun by them and would be as un- 
inhabitable as Hamelin. 

There axe three things that every I'hilippino 
does — play some instrument, smoke, and keep 
game roosters. Of all these three characteristics 
that which struck me most was his ability as a 
musician. I have rarely heard better music than 
that of the native bauds, and I never saw a Ma- 
nila man who could not play some sort of instru- 



AVith Dewey at Manila. 2] 

ment aud play it -well. lu the piping times of 
peace, when I was last there, the orchestra to the 
grand opera was a native one, while the audiences 
were far more appreciative, or at least more at- 
tentive than those of New York. The oi)era 
began at nine o'clock and was carried on in an 
easy, unhurried fashion until about two or three 
in the morning, with good long intervals be- 
tween the acts, long enough for a nice little 
light supijer. 

There is no opera in Manila now though, and 
for two years the Philippines have been the 
theater of some of the most horrifying tragedies 
that have ever marked Spain's bloody rule of her 
colonies. To Spain the natives of the Phil- 
ippines have been but one thing — tax-producers. 
It has been the land of promise and profit for 
every greedy, scoundrelly official, and what little 
has been left to the natives after the squeezing 
process of the state official has been ground and 
pulverized out of them by the greedy churchman. 
It is against the churchman, in fact, that the 
anger of the Philippino has most blazed out, and 
the poverty stricken village of thatched huts 
squatting around the ponderous convent or 
church, and the ragged, hunger-famished peas- 
ant elbowed out of the way by the sleek, paunchy 
padres have been object lessons which served 
to keep that anger hot. 



22 AVitii Dewey at Manila. 

It was iu August, 180G, that the anger and de- 
spair of the peasant bore its Avorst fruit. There 
were insurrections all over the islands and while 
the troops were in the south of Luzon the insur- 
gents gathered around Manila with the purjiose 
of sacking it. A leader was wanted, however, 
the troops were hurriedly called back, and 
Spain's heavy hand closed on the rebels. A 
hundred of them were thrown into a small dun- 
geon in an old fort near the river, and when the 
door was opened next morning sixty of them 
were dead. Instead of stopping the revolt this 
Black Hole incident only seemed to give it new 
fury. 

The revolution spread, and while groups of in- 
surgents have been shot down almost every week 
to the music of the bands the insurgents have 
retaliated by cutting the priests to pieces. A 
dragging war has been carried on in the Philip- 
pines on very nearly the same lines as that car- 
ried on in Cuba. White troops have been pitted 
against the natives, and while there have been 
few engagements, the white troops have been 
decimated by disease and sudden onslaught, 
while the natives are as strong as ever behind the 
impregnable intrenchments of climate and moun- 
tain jungle. 

Along the northern shore of the Pasig and im- 



With Dewey at Manila. 23 

mediately opposite the old city are the hotels aod 
large commercial warehouses and the bazaar oc- 
cupied by the Chinese and called the Escolta, 
from which central point the natives' dwellings 
stretch up and down the river between its two 
bridges. Next comes Biuondo proper, which is 
the great business <iuarter, and next up the river 
lies San Miguel, which is the fashionable quarter 
where the rich Spaniards and foreigners have 
tbeir residences. Here, too, are the new abodes 
of the Governor-General and admiral of the fleet 
who used to reside in the old walled city. Here, 
too, are the great modern churches, the tine hos- 
pital of St. Lazarus, the military storehouse and 
the famous cigar factory where some ten thou- 
sand women Avere daily employed making "Ma- 
nilas. " 

Back of these towns or quarters, which lie 
along the river front, are the suburbs. There 
are many pleasant gardens and towering build- 
ings, l)ut the whole is flat and unhealthy. The 
population, which is estimated at anything from 
one hundred and sixty thousand to three hun- 
dred thousand, contains only about five thousand 
Spaniards, the rest being made up of every shade 
and variet3- of natives and some twenty-five thou- 
sand Chinese. The natural drawbacks of Manila 
have not been combated any more than its natural 



24 With Dewe}^ at J\huiila. 

advantapces have been iniprovetl, and Manila in 
strouj^ Anglo-Saxon hands would not only con- 
tinue to be the most important port in this part 
of the globe, but ^vould be decently healthy and 
positively clean. 

As a trade center Manila ranks ■with Calcutta 
and Batavia, and as the chief port of the Philip- 
pine Islands all their productions flow to it, and 
its harbor is visited all the year round by vessels 
from every nation under the sun. "What Manila 
exports reads like a catalogue of tropical produc- 
tions, and as the foreign craft sail from it the^' 
are laden down with sugar, tobacco, indigo, 
hemp, gold-dust, bird's-nests, coffee, mats, hides, 
hats, tortoise shells, cigars, cotton and rice. 
Outside of its natural products Manila furnishes 
little other manufactures than cheroots and cord- 
age, except that in small (luantities it produces 
beautiful fabrics known as jiiuas, woven from the 
fibers of the pineapple leaf and exquisitely em- 
broidered, lovely mats and rich cloths of the 
abaca filament. 

The Philippine Islands are indeed the treasure 
house of the Malay Archipelago. "While many 
of the twelve hundred islands are little more 
than volcanic points in the sea, Luzon, Min- 
danao, Samar, Panay, Negros and Palawan are so 
large that most of their interior regions are still 



Witli Dewey at Manila. 25 

unknown lauds. Up and down the islands runs 
a ^reat chain of mountains, with a general trend 
of north and south and an extreme height of six 
thousand feet. In those mountains lie uuex- 
jiloied riches of gold, copper, iron, lead, mercury, 
sulphur and coal. The coasts of most of the 
islands are deeply indented by the sea, rivers are 
abundant and there are excellent harbors galore. 

From their position the Philippines lie within 
the range of the Monsoons, and violent hurri- 
canes are of frequent occurrence. From Ma3' to 
September the west coasts of the archipelago are 
deluged with rain, while the October Monsoon 
brings rain to the east coast. 

It cannot be denied that malaria and fever are 
common, but there are plenty of low, river bot- 
toni lands in the Southern States that are quite as 
unhealthy as the Philippines, while in the inte- 
rior of the islands the climate is as balmy and 
pure as in Kentuck3\ Even under Spanish 
mismanagement the exi)orts of the Philippines 
amount roundly to sixteen million dollars an- 
nually, while the outside world sends to them 
cottons, machinery, linens, coal, iron, earthen- 
ware, hardware and woolens to about as much. 
The area of the Philippines is something like 
seventy-seven thousand square miles, or a trifle 
over that of the New England States, while the 



26 With Dewey at Manila. 

poi)nliition lias beon estimated at ei^ht millions. 
All this, however, is estimated because the Span- 
iards, notwithstanding their centuries of occupa- 
tion, have been as limited in their exjilorations 
of the group as they have been in their schemes 
of drainage in Manila. In a -word, the Philip- 
pines stand as an unexplored jiotentiality whose 
products, commerce, and strategic value are 
almost limitless. 

Ten miles nearer the entrance to the Bay of 
Manila lies the town of Cavite, with a jiopula- 
tion of five thousand and a garrison of six hun- 
dred. It is, or was, the military post and 
marine arsenal of IManila and of the Spanish 
Orient. Vessels were built and repaired there. 
It has a dock for gunboats and many private 
slijts. It possesses a harbor formed by a spit 
which projects from the shore like a finger point- 
ing toward Manila. It is strongly fortified, its 
fortresses mounting many guns, and although 
most of them were of an ancient type, many 
others of them were modern, and we wei'e in- 
formed that at least two ten-inch guns had been 
taken from the war ships and placed in one of 
the shore batteries. Opposite the fort on the 
spit there was a large mortar battery on the main 
laud, witli a good range across the harbor and 
toward the entrance of the bay. 




SCENE OF THE FIRST GREAT NAVAL BATTLE OF THE WAR 

eye view ( f the lower part of Manila Bay, showing the City and fortified approaches thereto, with Cavite, where tlie great fight was made and won. 



With Dewey at Manila. 27 

Manila itself is more strongly protected on 
the land side than on the Avater front. The 
cordon of land batteries, put up to prevent at- 
tacks by the insurgent forces which had been 
hovering about the city ready to pounce upon it 
when the opportunity ofEefed, is, I should think, 
quite an effective one, but, with the exception 
of a Krupp battery on the mole known as the 
Luneta fort, there was nothing to fear from 
Manila. 

Blocking the entrance to the bay, or rather 
dividing it into three channels, are two islands, 
Corregidor and Caballo or Rulocabilla. Corregidor 
is six hundred and forty feet high, while Caballo 
is four hundred and twenty. There is a lighthouse 
on each island, and we had heard that both were 
strongly fortilied with modern guns. Across 
from Corregidor lies San Jose point with, it was 
understood, a shore battery which commanded 
that channel; while across from Caballo Island is 
Libonis Point, also, we understood, heavily 
guarded with shore batteries. In fact, while we 
were at Hong Kong we had seen sundrj' dis- 
patches from Madrid in the Hong Kong Times 
which stated that Manila was impregnable. It 
was asserted that there were forts, terrible forts, 
on every point along the entrance, that the bay 
shore fairly bristled with Krujip guns, and that 



28 AVith Dewey at Manila. 

the bombardment of tlie defenses would be an 
impossibility, owiuj^ to the ran<ie and jiower of 
the ordnance wliich had been emjilaced at every 
commandin<!; point. More than this, ^ve learned 
throuiih the same medium that the entrance to 
Manila Bay was completely mined, and that the 
passage of any channel would result in every 
ship of the fleet beiny; blown into eternity. It 
was stated, moreover, that all the forts were 
heavily y;arrisoned, and that the troojis in ]\[anila 
numbered from seven to ten thonsand. 

Corregidor, which is the principal island, lies 
two mile.s oul.v from the east shore of the main- 
land, the channel beiuy; known as the IJctca 
Grande. The channel between Caballo Island 
and the mainland is about three miles across, 
about twenty fathoms deep, and is called the 

Boca Chica. The Uiiddle channel, that between 

■ 

the two islands, is about three thousand four 
hundred feet wide, and perhaps seven fathoms 
deep. The winds of the entrance are always 
fi'esh and the tide always stroni;. 

Lastly, we knew, with a measurable degree of 
certainty, that if the Spanish fleet were within, 
it would be found lying under the forts of 
Cavite. 

This, therefore, was the problem which the 
Commodore had to face: The selection of his 



With Dewey at Manila. 29 

channel, the avoidance of mines, the encounter 
with the Spanish fleet and its protecting; forts, 
and running the gauntlet of the shore batteries. 
It was with the perfect cognizance of all these 
matters that the hattle line Mas formed and the 
signal given to steam through the Boca Grande. 



30 With Dewey at Manila. 



CHAPTER III. 

RUKNIXG TUE GAUNTLET. 

When we arrived off Subij; Bay on the after- 
uoou of Sjitur.lay, A].ril 80, the Couimodore 
calknl the connuaiuliu':; officers of the sLijts over 
to his cabin and outlined to tlieni liis plan of 
attack as far as he then knew it. The men in the 
Conunodore's council of war were tliese: From 
the Olynii.ia, Captain Charles V. (iridley; from 
the Kaleigh, Captain Joseph B. Coghlan ; from the 
Boston, Captain Frank Wildes; from the Balti- 
more, Caiitaiu Neheniiah U. Dyer; from the 
Concord, Commander Asa Walker; from the 
Petrel, Captain E. P. Wood; from the :\rcCiil- 
loch. Captain D. B. Hodirson. 

These men M-ere the men to whom tlie ^^dory of 
the flight is due as leaders; and these are the 
leaders who say that the glory of the fight is due 
the men. 

He told them he had every reason to 
believe that the Si)ani!Trds M-ere in Manila Bay 
and that his purpose was to carry out the Presi- 
dent's instructions and destroy their fleet. We 



With Dewey at Manilla. 31 

were told that the first thing was to slip into the 
bay past the guarding forts under cover of night 
and as soon as daylight came and the exact loca- 
tion of the fleet was discovered to "go for it. " 
It was decided to use the Boca Grande or south- 
ern passage for entrance and if possible to pass 
the shore forts without drawing their fire. 

Sunday morning came on still and hot, and as 
each captain was carried back to his shii) we 
could hear the chuck, chuck of the different 
launches or the dip of the gigs' crews, each one 
it seemed to us making noise enough to rouse 
the whole coast of Luzon. At last the moon set 
and the fleet steamed slowly into line for 
entering the harbor. First went the flagship 
Olympia, then the Baltimore, then the Raleigh, 
next the Petrel, following her the Concord, and > 
last the Boston. After the fighting fleet came 1 
the supply ships, Nanshan and Zafiro, convoyed | 
by the McCulloch. 

As we rounded out beyond the last point be- 
fore reaching the entrance we saw the lights of 
the great cone of Corregidor burning bright and 
still, but saw^ nothing in the shape of a flash- 
light. Every man was called up and ordered to 
wash and take a cup of coffee. "While this light 
and early refreshment was being served all the i ( 
ships' lights were extinguished, except those on 



32 With Dewey at Manila. 

the taffrail aud these were hooded. So we crept 
along, until we came into the channel moving in 
single file and without a sound on board, except 
a few quiet orders and the throb of the engines 
and kick of the screws. 

In that still air it seemed absolutely impossible 
for us to escape the atteutiou of the entrance 
forts, yet it is the fact that the Olympia, Balti- 
more, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord and Boston 
passed without even the challenge of a hail. The 
batteries of Corregidor and Caballo. were 
mute, although the flagship passed wi-11 in range 
with the Baltimore following still closer inshore. 
I can scarcely believe it jiossible that the garri- 
sons were at their posts and awake, for again it 
seemed to us that surely a fleet stealing into 
an enemy's bay never made so much noise as we 
did. Again, too, the fact remains that not a 
Acll or shot greeted us, and we would all have 
been inside — scjuadron, supply ships and con- 
voy — without the Spanish fleet receiving the 
J faintest intimation of our approach if it had not 
been for some enthusiastic fireman on board the 
McCulloch. Possibly her commander had some 
idea that he was running behind and told the 
engineer to put on a little more steam. At any 
rate the men at the boilers got the idea that this 
was needed and, throwing open the furnace doors, 



With Dewey at Manila. 33 

some fellow ladled in a few sbovelfulls of nice 
soft coal. Up from the smokestack of the cutter 
went a great shower of sparks. 

"Well," said a lieutenant who stood beside 
me, "if some one don't see that, the whole island 
must be asleep." 

Some one evidently did, but even then the an- 
swer did not come instantly, for some minutes 
elapsed before out of the west there came a bugle 
call, then a flash and then the rolling boom of a 
great gun. Between the flash and the report 
there should have been the drop somewhere of 
the shot that went with them, but nobody in the 
fleet, so far as I have been able to learn, ever 
saw or heard anything to prove that Spain's first 
gun in the battle of Manila Bay fired anything 
more than a blank cartridge. 

Twice more the battery spoke and somewhere 
astern of the McCulloch there was a great flash- 
ing of Avater, but whether a wave broke, a fish 
jumped, or a shot struck, I cannot say. Up to 
the third shot with its answering splash no reply 
had come from our fleet, but with the third shot, 
and sounding almost like its echo, there came a 
cra^kJroBithe^qncprd, and we knew that our 
first shot had gone out in the shape of a four- 
inch shell. In what particular part of the fort 
that shot hit I am not able to say, but that it did 



34 With Dewey at Manila. 

liit I Lave no doubt for from the shore eame the 
sound of a plunk and smash, followed by n cry. 
Then still further back of us the Boston barked 
yet louder and sent in an eisht-inch shell, and 
still further to the rear the McCulloch, liavinjj; 
started the fuss, -went snapping into it with a few 
of her four-pounders. 

The batteries kept on flashing and booming a 
few minutes longer and then became as silent as 
they were before we had steamed up. Whether 
the gunners went back to bed or no will have to 
be set down as an historical doubt, but so far as 
being an opposing force the shore garrisons — 
these terrible fortresses, l)ristling with Krupps 
of which we had heard so much, might have 
been so many children's sand forts at Coney 
Island set up to keep out the Atlantic. 

There remained of course the torpedoes and 
mines with which the entrance was strewn, and 
Admiral Montojo's fleet rushing out to meet us. 
AVhat the sensations of the other fellows were 
about the mines I did not know then, but I found 
afterward, when making a poll of sensations, 
that the unanimous feeling was that if mines 
were there they were, and that was all there w^as 
about it. The dreadful and unexpected did not 
happen. There was no shaking up of the. foun- 
tains of the vasty deep, no great ship rose bodily 



With Dewey at Manila. 35 

in the air and came down a shattered mass of 
timbers, steel and men. The mines proved as 
innocuous as the shore batteries. 

There remained then the 8i»anish fleet "rush- 
ing out to meet us." But out of the darkness 
came the throb of no enemy's engine, no flash- 
ing signal to halt, not even a scurrying scout. 

Very quietly, that is, as quietly as nine 
steamers can move, we went ahead and as soon as 
we had passed the batteries at the harbor mouth 
we slowed down until it seemed as though we 
Avere almost at a standstill. The Commodore was 
talking in an undertone to the rebel Philippino 
who was acting as pilot; I could see the figures of 
the men standing silently at their posts up and 
dcnvnthe ship; and looking over her sides I could 
distinguish no line of demarkation between the 
dull gray of the vessels and the dark waters of the 
bay through which we were so slowly slipping. 

We all came to the conclusion afterward that 
this leisurely advance through the quarter light 
of the dawn Avas the most trying period in the 
whole affair. The snapping interchange of com- 
pliments between the forts and the Concord, 
Boston and McCulloch had served as aTlittle 
fillip, although we on the first four ships had 
had no part in that, but this creeping, creeping, 
creeping with invisible mines below us and an 



36 AVith Dewey at Manila. 

invisible fleet ahead was a test out of which no 
man came without a sigh of relief. It is a hard 
thing to whisper an order, I know, so perhaps it 
is not to be wondered at that there should have 
been a break, or vibration in the men's voices as 
they passed the necessary word from mouth to 
mouth. We were all keyed up, but it was not 
long before the fighting string in every man's 
heart was twanging and singing like that of a 
taut l)ow. 

As is the fashion of nature in these parts the 
dawn turned as suddenly into day as though a 
curtain had been torn down from the sunlight, 
and there right ahead of us lay the Spanish fleet 
tucked up under the forts of Cavite; the scene 
jumping as suddenly into vision as though it had 
been a quick stage-setting in a theater dune in 
the dark and shown in the flashing up of every 
light in the house. The fleets at last had met, 
and here it is that the fighting forces must be 
plainly marshaled for the reader's clear under- 
sta^^iliiig <^'f what is to follow. 

Commodore Dewe3''s fleet consisted of seven 
vessels exclusive of the transports. 

His flagship, the cruiser Olympia, was launched 
in San Francisco in 1892. She is a twin screw 
steamer of steel with two covered barbettes and 
two military masts. She is three hundred and 



With Dewey at Manila. 37 

forty feet long, has a beam of fifty-three feet and 
a mean draft of twenty-one feet six inches. Her 
tonnage is five thousand eight hundred and 
seventy tons, her coai-carrying capacity is one 
thousand three hundred tons and her speed is 
twenty-one and a half knots. Her armor consists 
of steel deck plates, steel-covered barbettes, 
hoods and gun shields, and two conning towers. 
She is also protected with a cellulose belt thirty- 
three inches thick and eight feet broad. Her 
armament includes four eight-inch breech load- 
ers, ten five-inch (luick-firing guns, fourteen six- 
pounder quick-fire guns, six one-pound quick- 
fire guns, four gatlings and six torpedo tubes. 
She carries four hundred and sixty-six men and 
belongs to the second class of protected cruisers. 
The Baltimore was launched in Philadelphia 
in 18HH. She also is a i)rotected cruiser of the 
second class, is built of steel, has twin screws 
and two military tops. She is three hundred 
and twenty-seven feet six inches long, forty-eight 
feet six inches in beam, has a mean draft of nine 
teen feet six inches, a tonnage of four thousand 
six hundred tons and a speed of twenty knots. 
Her protection consists of steel deck plates, 
shields for all the guns and conning tower. Her 
armament consists of four eight-inch breech 
loaders, six six-inch breech loaders, two six- 



38 With Dewey at Manila. 

pound rapid firers, two three-pound rapid firers, 
two one-pound rapid firers, four one-pound re- 
volving cannon, two gatliny; i;uns, and five tor- 
pedo tubes. She carries a crew of three hundred 
and ninety-five men. 

The Boston, also a second class protected 
cruiser, was launched in 1884. She is a steel 
vessel of three thousand one hundred and eitrhty- 
nine tons, with a sinj^le screw. Her length is 
two hundred and seventy feet three inches, beam 
fort3'-two feet and mean draft seventeen feet. 
Her speed is fifteen and a half knots. Her deck 
is partially protected and she carries two eip;ht- 
inch breech loaders, six six-inch breech loaders, 
two six-i)ound, two three-pound, and two one- 
pound rapid-fire liuns, two three-pound revolving 
cannon and two tiatliuL's. Her crew consists of 
two hundred and sevent3'-two men. 

The Raleigh was launched at Norfolk in 1892. 
She is a steel cruiser of the second class with 
twin screws and military tops. She is three 
hundred feet long, forty-two feet in beam, eight- 
een feet draft, three thousand one hundred and 
eighty -three tons of tonnage and a speed of nine- 
teen knots. Her deck is protected with armor, 
she carries a cellulose belt, an armored conning 
tower and steel sponsons. She carries one six- 
inch ra])id-tire gun, on her forecastle, ten five- 




"OLYMPIA," U.S.N. 

Protected Cruiser. Twin screw. Keel laid 1891. 20 officers ; 293 men. 

Dimensions, 340 feet by 53 feet ; Draft, 21 feet 6 'uches. Displacement, 5870 tons. Speed 20 knots. 

Main Battery, four 8 inch guns and ten 5-inch rapid firing guns. Secondary Battery, fourteen 6-pounder and six i-pounder rapid fire 
guns, and four gatlings. 



With Dewey at Manila. 39 

inch rapid-firinff Runs, two on the poop and four 
on each side of the gun-deck in sponsons ; eight 
six-pound and four one-pound rapid-lire guns, 
two gatlings and six tori)edo tubes. Her crew 
nurubers two hundred and ninety-five. 

The Concord is a third-class cruiser, really a 
gunboat, of one thousand seven hundred tons, 
with twin screws, loigth of two hundred and 
thirty feet, beam of thirty-six feet, draft of four- 
teen feet and can make seventeen knots. Her 
deck and conning tower are protected with light 
armor. She carries six six-inch guns, two six- 
I)Ound, two three-pound, and one one-pound 
rapid-fire guns, two two-pound revolving cannon, 
two gatlings and two torpedo tubes. She has a 
crew of one hundred and fifty men. 

The Petrel is a gunboat of eight hundred tons. 
She was launched in Baltimore in 1888, is one 
hundred and seventy-six feet long, thirty-one 
feet beam, eleven feet seven inches in draft and 
makes 13.7 knots an hour. Her deck and six- 
inch guns are protected Avith armor. She carries 
four six-inch guns, two three-pound and one 
one-pound rapid-fire guns, two one-pound revolv- 
ing cannon and two gatlings. Her crew is one 
hundred men. 

The ]McCulloch is a revenue cutter of one thou- 
sand five hundred tons, built of steel and armed 



40 With Dewe}^ at Manila. 

with four four-inch guns. She has a speed of 
fourteen knots an hour and carries a force of one 
hundred and thirty men. 

Admiral Montojo's fleet consisted of twelve 
vessels. The Reina Cristina, the flajjcship, was 
an armored cruiser of three thousand and ninety 
tons; she was launched at Ferrol in 1887. 
She had a single screw, was two hundred 
and eighty feet long, forty-three feet in beam, 
had a mean draft of 15.5 feet and a speed of 
seventeen and a half knots. She carried an arma- 
ment of six G. 2-inch Hontorio breech loaders, 
two 2.7-inch Houtorios, three six-pound, two 
four-pound, and six three-pound rapid tire 
guns, two machine guns and five torpedo tubes. 
She had a crew of three hundred and seventy 
men. 

The Castilla was a wooden second-class cruiser, 
launched at Cadiz in IHHI, and was bark rigged, 
with a single screw. Her length was two hun- 
dred and forty-six feet, her beam forty-six feet, 
her draft twenty-one feet, her displacement three 
thousand three hundred and forty -two tons and 
her speed fourteen knots. Her armament con- 
sisted of four 5.9-inch Krupp guns, two 4.7-inch 
Krupp guns, two 3.4-inch guns, two 2.9-inch 
Krupp guns, eight rapid-fire guns, four one-pound 
revolving cannon and two torpedo tubes. She 
carried three hundred men. 



With Dewey at Manila. 41 

The Don Juan De Austria was an iron cruiser 
of the third class. She was launched at Trieste 
in 1875, had a displacement of one thousand one 
hundred and thirty tons, a length of two hun- 
dred and ten feet, beam of thirty -two feet, draft 
of twelve feet six inches and a speed of fourteen 
knots. She carried an armored belt of from four 
to eight inches thick and nine and a half feet 
broad. Her armament consisted of four 4.7- 
inch Hontorio breech loaders, two 2.7-inch breech 
loaders twelve three-pound quick firers, four 
one-pound revolving cannon, five machine guns 
and four torpedo tubes. Her central batteries 
and bulkheads were shielded and her deck was 
protected. She carried a crew of one hundred 
and seventy-three men. 

The Don xVntonio de Ulloa was a third-class 
unprotected cruiser. She was launched at Car- 
raca in 1887. She was an iron single-screw ves- 
sel, two hundred and ten feet long, thirty-two 
feet beam, with a draft of twelve and a half feet, 
a displacement of one thousand one hundred and 
fift.y-two tons and a speed of fourteen knots an 
hour. Her armament consisted of four 4.7-inch 
Hontorio breech loaders, and five six-pound 
Krupp rapid firers. She carried a crew of one 
hundred and seventy-three men. 

The Velasco was a small cruiser of the old type, 



42 AVith Dewey at ^Nfanila. 

huiiu'lied at Blackwall in 1881. She Avas of iron, 
with one screw, a length of two Luntlred and ten 
feet, a beam of thirty-two, a draft of thirteen 
feet, a tonnage of one thousand one hundred and 
tliirty-nine and a si)eed of fourteen knots. She 
carried three six-inch Armstrong breech loaders, 
two two-inch Hontorio guns and two machine 
guns. Her crew was one hundred and seventy- 
three men. 

The Isla de Cul)a and Isia de Luzon were sister 
shii)s. They were lK)th laid down at Elswick in 
188G and launched in 1887. They were thinl- 
class protected cruisers with two screws and car- 
ried military tops. Their length was one hun- 
dred and eighty-live feet, their beam thirty feet, 
their mean draft eleven feet sis inches, their 
displacement one thousand and forty tons 
and their speed fifteen knots. They were 
protected hy steel deck plates and carried .steel- 
clad conning towers. The armament of each 
consisted of six 4.7-inch Hontorio guns, four six- 
pound rapid-tiring guns four one-inch Nordenfeldt 
machine guns and three torpedo tubes. They 
carried one hundred and sixty- four men each. 

The Quiros and Yillalobos were also sister 
ships, both huinclied at Hon?g Kong ; the former in 
1895 and the latter in 1890. They were gun- 
boats of composite construction, single screw. 




" BALTIMORE," U. S. N. 

Protected Cruiser. Twin screw. Commissioned January 7th, 1890. 36 officers; 350 men. 

Dimensions, 327 feet 6 inches by 48 feet 7 '4 inches; Draft, 19 feet 6 inches. Displacement, 4413 tons. Speed, 20 knots. 

Main Battery, four 8 inch and six 6-inch breech loading rifles. Secondary Battery, four 6pounder, two 3- pounder, and two ipounder rapid 
fire guns, four 37-minimetre Hotchkiss revolving cannon and two gatlings. 



With Dewey at Manila. 43 

one hundred and fortj'-five feet long, and twenty- 
three feet beam. Their tonnage was three hun- 
dred and forty-seven and their speed twelve 
knots. They were each armed with two six-pound 
rapid tiring guns, and two five-barrelled Norden- 
feldt machine guns. Each had a crew of sixty. 

The gunboats El Correo and General Lezo were 
likewise sister ships. They wei'e twin-screw 
iron vessels of five hundred and twenty- -four tons 
displacement, with engines of six hundred horse 
power. They were built respectively at Carraca 
and Cartagena in 1885. The El Correo was 
armed with three 4.7-iuch Hontorio guns, two 
quick-fire guns, two machine guns and one tor- 
pedo tube. Her speed was ten knots. The Gen- 
eral Lezo carried one 3.5-inch gun, had one 
machine gun and two torpedo tubes. The com- 
])lement of each gunboat was ninety- eight men. 

The Marques del Duero was a dispatch boat 
used as a gunboat. She was an iron twin-screw 
vessel of five hundred tons, was built at La 
Seyne in 1875, was one hundred and fifty-seven 
feet long and twenty-six feet in beam. Her 
si>eed was ten knots an hour. She carried one 
G. 2-inch muzzle loading Palliser rifle, two 4.7- 
inch smoothbores and a machine gun. Her 
comjilement was ninety-eight men. 

Besides these the Spaniards had two transports 



44 AVith Dewey at MuMila. 

or troopships, the MiiidaDao aiul the Mauila, but 
these caiiuot be considered as active belli jiereiits. 
The Mindanao, however, had two torpedo boats, 
which were heard from durinj^ the enira.Lrenient 
and carried about one hundred and fifty men, 
although these troojis took no ]iart in the fi^ht. 
Takintr the three items of class, armament 
and complement the two fleets stood as follows: 



AMERICAN FLEET. 
Name. Class. Armament. Offlcere*^ 

Olynipia Protected Cruiser. .Four 8-in., ten 5-in., 24 R.F. . .4(i6 

Baltimore Protect il Cruiser. .Four S-iu., si.x fi-iu., 10H.F..395 

Boston Par. Pt.i. Crui.ser. ..Two 8 in, .six Gin., 10 R.F 272 

Raleigh I'roteotetl Cruiser. .One 5-iu., ten ."i-in., 14 R.F 295 

Concord fiunboat Sixtj-in., 9 R.F IfiO 

Petrel (iunboat Four (i-in., 7 R.F 100 

McCulloch Revenue Cutter Four 4-iu 130 

SPANISH FLEET. 

*Reina Cristina. Steel Cruiser Si.v 0.3-in., two 2.7., 13 R F. . .370 

Castilla Wood Cruiser Four 5.9, two 4.7. two 3.4 , 

Don .Vntonio de [two 2.9, 12K.F. .SK) 

Ulloa Iron Cruiser Four 4.7, 5 R.F 173 

Don Juan de 

Austria Iron Crui.ser .Four 4.7, two 2.7, 21 R.F 173 

Islade Luzon... Steel Ptd. Cruiser... Six 4.7. H R.F 164 

Isia de Cuba Steel Ptd. Cruiser.. .Six 4.7. 8 R.K 1&4 

Vela-seo Iron Cruiser Three G-in., two 2.7, 2R.F 173 

Marques del Du- 

ero Gunboat One 6.2, two 4.7, 1 R.F 98 

General Lezo... Gunboat One 3.5. 1 R.F 97 

El Correo Gunboat Three 4.7, 4 R.F 116 

Quiros Gunboat 4 R.F (iO 

Villalobos (Junhoat 4 R.F 60 

Two torpedo boats and two transports. 

In resume the matter stood therefore as fol- 
lows : 

We had four cruisers, two gunboats, one cut- 

* Flagship. 



With Dewey at Manila. 45 

ter, fifty -seven classified big guns; seventy-four 
rapid tirers and machine guns and one thousand 
eight hundred and eight men. 

Against us were pitted seven cruisers, five gun- 
boats, two torpedo boats; fifty-two classified big 
guns; eighty-three rapid firers and machine 
guns, and one thousand nine hundred and forty- 
eight men. 

It cannot be denied that we had a greater 
number of heavy guns and that our ships were of 
modern construction, nor must it be overlooked 
that the Spanish fleet was much more numerous 
and that it had the immense assistance of pro- 
tecting ports manned with strong garrisons and 
mounting an unknown number of guns, of whose 
caliber and force we had been told most terrify- 
ing things. 



■i^ AVith Duwev at Maiiilu. 



CHArTER IV. 

THE F I K S T 1{ U U N D . 

It was with barely steerage way that, with the 
Unitetl States llaic tlyiujJC at all our mastheads, 
with druius beating to quarters, and having stiiled 
some seventeen miles up the bay, our lleet, as 
soon as it had sighted the Sj.aniards, passed in 
a broad curve to the east side of the bay. Then, 
with the Olympia leading, we curved around the 
Manila water front; again turned and headed for 
a sailing line exactly parallel to the line of Mon- 
tojo's Heet. 

It might have been that Montojo for one wild 
moment imagined that it was the Commodore's 
intention to put out of the bay again, on tlie 
conclusion that he liad run into a stronger foe 
than he had auticij.ated. If so, the D(jn was 
soon to be most dreadfully disillusioned. 

The Commodore's plan — and from first to last 
he followed it out with a grim and steadfast pre- 
cision that made every man in the fleet as grim 
and deliberate — the Commodore's j. Ian of action 
was simply this: The detour to the east was in 



^\hh Dewey at MRiiilu. 47 

order to drop tlie supply ships at a careful dis- 
tance and then to sweep around Avith sufficient 
"way to have good sailing past the enemy. Each 
of the ships was to hold her lire until within cer- 
tain effective distance; to pour in every available 
shot as she passed the enemy's fleet and forts; to 
wheel as soon as she had passed out of effective 
distance; to steam past the forts and fleet on a 
retui'n line, but closer inshore than on the 
first line of attack ; to wheel again as soon as she 
had passed out oi effective range and to keep 
thus wheeling and passing and Sring until the 
forts were silenced and the fleet was smashed, or 
until a signal of recall was floated. As we passed 
on the eastward curve before actually beginning 
the engagement, our lookouts reported that Ad- 
miral Montojo's flag was flying on the cruiser 
Eeina Cristina. They reported also that the 
.S]>auiiirds appeared to be protected by a sort of 
roughly coiistructed boom of logs. I could dis- 
tinguish no steam up and it 0(tcurred to me that 
the Siianish admiral's idea was that our ships 
would be drawn up opposite his and that the 
tight would be carried on as a sort of brigade 
engagement, each man to stand his ground until 
shot down. If so, he was once more Avoefully 
disillusioned. The Commodore's idea was an 
engagement of evolution. I understand that in 



48 With Dewey at ^Nranila. 

the official reports sent to Madrid it "svas stated, 
with the true Spanish process of extracting self- 
adulation out of a bad job, that Montojo had 
"forced the American fleet to nianoeuvre fre- 
quently." It is the one joke of the tragedy. 

As we steamed slowly along then, after droj)- 
ping the supx>ly ships tbere came a spit of flame 
and a boom from the bastions of Cavite, followed 
immediately by another flame spit and a sharper 
report from one of the Spanish flagship's modern 
guns. Both shots dropped somewhere in the 
bay and our only answer was in sending up a 
string of flags bearing the code watchword 
"llemember the Maine. " Not exactly our only 
answer either; for as the flags fluttered out the 
whole fleet roared, but it was not the ruar of 
guns, it was the concerted yelp of the sea dogs 
that knew their time for vengeance was at hand. 

On steamed the fleet, with every gun loaded 
and everj' man at his post; but not a lanyard was 
pulled. Even the Spaniards at Cavite ceased 
firing as we moved down toward Manila. As we 
rounded past the cit^-'s water-front, with about 
four miles of blue water between us and it, we could 
with our glasses make out the city walls, church 
towers, and other high places, crowded with sight- 
seers. I heard afterward that a number of these 
sightseers drove down to Cavite to see the 



Witli Dewey at Manila. 49 

Yankees blown out of the water. I never heard 
Low they got back. The battery on the Luneta 
mole paid us a little more attention and sent 
three shells at us. Tliey must have been from 
large guns, for the projectiles screamed far over- 
head and fell miles beyond us. Here again it 
was the impatient Concord that replied and she 
sent two of her shells hurtling toward the fort. 

The Commodore, however, sent up a sigual to 
hold fire as he had no idea of battering down the 
city yet. . As we turned from Manila the Com- 
modore said something about the picturesque- 
ness of the city, adding that the blue hills to the 
back of tlie town reminded him of those of Ver- 
mont. It was most unaffectedly said and was no 
more tinged with bravado than was Captain 
"Wildes' use of a palm-leaf fan during the en- 
gagement. Captain "Wildes used the fan because 
he felt hot, and heaven knows it was one of the 
hottest Sunday mornings that I ever remember; 
and the Commodore spoke of the Luzon hills as 
he did because they impressed him as they did. 
From the first to the last the Commodore never 
for one instant changed his demeanor, which was 
always that of a man who had a duty to do and 
who Avent about it with the plain, everyday de- 
termination to do that duty. As we headed 
toward the Hiianish fleet their gunners and those 



50 AVllh Dowoy at INfanila. 

of the forts l)p.iian a ri.irht merry fusillade. Tbere 
was a good deal of the Looiuiiii!; roar that showed 
the presence of old guus, hut there was also a 
good deal of the sharper declamation that told 
us of modern rifles and of heavy work laid out 
for us. 

So far as guns were concerned that would have 
been the fact had it not been that in this battle 
of Manila the value of the man behind the gun as 
a fighting factor was ]»re-emiuent. "With all this 
thundering and snapping of the Spaniards, how- 
ever, there was no answer from us ; the turrets 
were silent and each sponson was imsmoked. 
Up went the signal, "Hold your lire until close 
in," and on Avent the scpiadron. Suddenly some- 
thing hajipened. Close off the bow of the Balti- 
more there came a shaking of the bay and a 
geyser of mud and water. Then right aliead of 
the Raleigh came another ugly fountain of harbor 
soil and water. 

"We were among the mines at last. 

No notice whatever was taken of the fact. No 
change of course was ordered; no special word 
of command was given and though each man of 
us, I suiijiose, took a tooth grip of the lower 
lip and liad no idea of how many seconds lay 
between him and kingdom come, I can state it as 
a fact that the only remarks I heard made were 



With Dewey at Manila. Si- 

such natural ones as "Torpedoes at last, " or 
"Now we'll get it." 

But we did not get it, for these two upheavals 
marked the extent of our experience with the 
"terrible mines" of Manila hay. Htill the roar 
and snap of the Spanish ships and forts kept on 
as they had ever since ten minutes past five, with 
the short cessation while we were opiiosite Ma- 
nila, and still, with the excei)tion of the Con- 
cord's evidence of impatience, we had not begun 
to fight. The Commodore, his chief of staff 
Commander Lamberton, the executive officer 
Lieutenant lleese and the navigator, were on the 
forward bridge. Captain Gridley was in the 
conning tower. AVith a glance at the shore the 
Commodore turned to the officer next to him and 
said "About five thousand yards I should say, 
eh, Reese?" 

"Between that and six thousand, I should 
think, sir," Eeese answered. 

The Commodore then leaned over the railing 
and called out : 

"Wh(!n you are ready you may fire, Gridley." 

Captain Gridley evidently was ready, for it 
was at eighteen minutes and thirty-five seconds 
of six o'clock Avhen the Commodore gave the 
order to fire, and it was at eighteen minutes and 
thirty-four seconds of six o'clock when the fioor 



52 With Dewey at ]\raiiila. 

of the l)ii(]i:;e s]ivanL!; u]i l)cue;itli our feet as the 
port eight-iiu'h gun of our forward turret gave 
its introductory roar. Our tirst aiin Avas at tlie 
center of the Spuuish Hect, tlie ()l\iiiiiia's shot 
being iiarticuhuly directed, as a sort of inter- 
national mark of courtesy, to the Reina Cristina. 
Ahout coincidental with the C'diiiniodore's 
l)olite intimation to Cajitain (iridley, he ordered 
the signal run up for the shijis astern, "Fire as 
convenient. " 

As our turret gun rang out, the T5altiniore and 
Boston took up the chorus, their forward guns 
pitching in two-hundreil-and-tifty-iioimd shells. 
The reply of the Spaniards was simply terrific. 
Their ship and shore guns seemed to unite in 
on(! unending snap and roar, wliile the scream of 
their shot, the hursting of shells, made uji a din 
that was as savage as it was unceasing. It was, 
however, but as the scra]»ing of fiddle strings to 
the blare and crash of a full orchestra when com- 
l»ared with that which was to follow. 

One wailing, shrieking shell was making 
straight for the Olympia's forward bridge when 
it ex]iloded about a hundred feet in front of us, 
one fragment sawing the rigging just over our 
Leads. Another fragment chiselled a long siilin- 
ter from the deck just under where the Commo- 
dore stood, a third smashed the bridge gratings, 



With Dewey at Manila. 53 

and all around and about and above us there was 
the sputter and shriek and roar of projectiles. 

But the miracle was that none of us was hit. 
Through this hail of miraculously impotent steel 
we steered until within a distance of four thou- 
sand yards of the Spanish column. 

"Open with all the guns," said the Commo- 
dore, and they were opened. That is, all on the 
port broadside. The eight-inchers roared and 
the five-inch rapid firers spluttered and cracked, 
and soon the Baltimore was booming awav, then 
the Ealeigh, then the Boston and Concord and 
finally the Petrel, as busy and earnest in the 
management of her long popguns as though the 
very issue of the fight depended on her. 

By the time the Petrel had j.assed the Span- 
iards, the Olymi.ia had swung around on her 
return line of attack and once more we were 
steaming past Montojo witli our starboard guns 
riaming, roaring, spitting and smoking as"" we 
went. As we passed, the batteries on shore and 
the Spanish batteries afioat banged away at us, 
fighting gallantly and furiously. One shot went 
clean through the Baltimore, but hit no one. 
Another struck just outside the wardroom but 
did not even dent the ship's side. Another cut 
the signal halyards from Lieutenant Brumbuy's 
hands on the after bridge; Ensign Dodridge's 



b4: With Dewey at Manila. 

stateroom on board tlie Boston Mas wrecked l)y a 
shell which entered the fore quarter and started 
a lire, while another lire was started by a shell 
which burst in the port hammock netting. 
Another shell passed through the 13oston's fore- 
mast not far from where Captain "Wildes was on 
the bridge. 

On the third turn the Raleigh was caught in a 
strong insetting current and was carried plump 
into the bows of two Spanish cruisers. Instead 
of s(>nding her to tlui bottom, the enemy's ships 
seemed to be positively useless, so taking advan- 
tage of her nearness, the Raleigh sent in a couple 
of raking fires before she steamed back into ]ilace. 
Captain Coghlan and Lieutenant Singer spoke of 
it afterward as the picnic of the engagement. 

It was on the third turn, too, that the great 
naval duel between the two llagships took jilace. 

"When we sighted the Spanish fleet, I remarked, 
it will be remembered, that the enemy seemed to 
have no steam up and that the fleet seemed to lie 
behind a breakwater. As we came closer to 
them, however, we saw more clearly the scheme 
of their order. Put out your right hand with 
the thumb extended ; call the thumb the Cavite 
spit and the space between the thumb and the 
forefinger Cavite Bay. Manila lies about where 
the nail of the forefinger is. The town of 



With Dewey at Manila. 55 

Cavite lies in the pocket of the thumb and fore- 
finger, and the thumb's nail stands for the main 
Cavite batteries, four in number. Put a pencil 
halfway across from the thumb's nail to the root 
joint of the forefinger and it will stand for the 
Cavite arsenal with its boom extension. Behind 
this boom lay the gunboats of the Spanish fleet, 
while in front of it, facing Manila Bay, were the 
Spanish cruisers. 

They lay anchored while we made our first and 
second parallels of attack, but by the time we 
were sweeping up on the third course their 
stokers had made such hurry work that the smoke 
poured out of the Reina Cristina's smokestacks; 
there was a fleece of white gathered about tlie 
steam pipe, and the flagship moved out to the 
attack. She gallantly stood for the Olympia and 
it looked as though it was her intention to ram 
us. The Commodore passed the word to con- 
centrate all possible fire on the Reina Christina, 
and she actually shivered under the battering of 
our storm of shot and shell. Rents appeared near 
her waterline where the eight-inch shells had 
torn their way. One shot struck the port bridge 
on which Admiral Montojo stood, upon which, 
like the brave man he was, the admiral coolly 
stepped to the other end. 

But no bravery could stand the driving, crush- 



56 With Dewey at Manila. 

ing, rendincc of the tons of stool which v,e ])oiired 
into tbe Cristina, and tliore was quite a little 
cbeer from our forward men as tbe Sjianish iiaj^- 
ship slowly turned and made for the nbore. But 
appreciation of conratre on tlio part of the enemy 
did not prevent our iiunnfrs frojii also appreciat- 
ing the excellent opportunity which tlie retreat- 
iiijL? fla.irship sirave us for a rakiiiiX shot. As she 
got into her swini:: with the stoni dead toward 
us, one of Captain (iridh-y's trims tliundorod, and 
an eight-inch shell struck the ononiy as s<iuarely in 
the center as though she had l)oon painted off in 
target s<iuares. It was a bull's-eye, so marvelous 
in its exactness and so torriljle in its effects that 
I cannot help speaking of it a little more at 
length. 

"We saw from where we stood that it shattered 
the Cristina's steering gear, and, unless our eyes 
very much deceived us, Ave saw, too, that the 
Si laniard was actually driven forward with a 
shivering motion like one ]irize licchter sent in 
catapult fashion staggering into the ropes from 
the fist blow of another prize tighter. From 
what we learned then, and from what Ave learned 
afterAvard, I am convinced that no man in the 
squadron had np to that time any idea of the 
aAvfully destructive iiossibilities of the eight- 
incher. The projectile weighed two hundred 



"With Dewey at Manila. 57 

and fifty pounds, and one hundred and fifty 
pounds of powder were used to expel it. The gun 
itself was about twenty-eight feet long. "When 
it leftGridley's gun the shell traveled at the rate 
of two thousand feet a second. The distance be- 
tween the 0]yiui)ia and the Reina Cristina was 
about two thousand five hundred yards, and the 
time between the shot's leaving the muzzle of our 
gun and its impact on the stern of the Spanish 
ship was the scarcely appreciable one of live sec- 
onds. 

"When it left our gun it had what is techni- 
cally known as an energy of eight thousand and 
eleven hundred foot-tons; that is, it would have 
gone through twenty-one and a half inches of 
Harveyized steel. But the lleina Cristina was an 
unarmored vessel and all that enormous penetra- 
tive energy was expended on the Spanish cruiser's 
protected sides and such internal resistance as 
partitions, bulkheads, engines, etc. It was 
through all these obstructions that the great 
shell tore its way until it I'eached the aft boiler. 
There it exploded and as it did so ripped up the 
deck of the cruiser and scattered its hail of steel 
in all directions. "We could see the smoke pour- 
ing out of the vessel, the gush of escaping steam 
and the shower of splinters and mangled bodies. 

That one shot practically disabled the Spanish 



58 With Dewey at Manila. 

flagship, while iu the whole duel between the 
Cristina and the Olympia sixty of the Sjianish 
crew were killed including the chaplain and first 
lieutenant. It was small wonder she retreated. 

Every time we swung round tlie ellipse Hue of 
attack and brought our broadside to bear on the 
Spanish fleet our eight-inch guns perforated the 
enemy's protected decks and sides with all the 
ease and accuracy imaginable. For such a range 
and for such an engagement the eight-inch gun 
^ was exactly what was needed. 

It was during the frightful hubbub of the duel 
between the admiral and the Commodore that 
two gunboats belonging to the Mindanao and 
acting as torpedo boats crept out from behind 
the Cavite pier and started in to do desperate 
deeds. One stole out along the shore, then 
turned and made for the rupply shii)S, while 
the other headed for the Olympia. The Petrel 
was sent after the flrst and after a sharp bark or 
two from her four-pounders, the Spaniard evi- 
dently gave up the job and made for the shore. 
The Petrel made after her and while the Spanish 
crew chimbered over their boat's sides and on to 
the beach and up into the underbrush, the 
Petrel turned her rapid-fire guns on their craft 
and literally blew her to pieces. 

The other torpedo boat, which was bound to 




"PETREL," TT. S. N. 

! Gunboat. Single screw. Commissioned December i«th, i88g. lo officers; 122 men. 

I Dimensions, 176 feet -finches by 31 feet; Draft, II feet 7 inches. Displacement, 892 tons. Speed, 12 knots. 

MaTn BaUeiV! four 6.inch breech-loading rifles. Secondary Battery, two 3-pounder and one i-pounder rapid fire guns, two j7-milhmetrc 
lotchkiss revolving cannon and two gatlings. 



With Dewey at Manila. 59 

destroy our iSagsbip, made a better fight. Our 
secondary battery was concentrated on her, but 
still she kept on until within five hundred yards, 
and matters were beginning to look serious for 
us. Then the machine guns in the tops began 
to treat her to a hailstorm and this proved too 
much for this representative of Spanish naval 
daring. She turned tail, and as she did so the 
same fate that befell the Reina Cristina on her 
retreat overtook this gunboat. A shell struck 
her just inside the stern railing, exploded, and 
the gunboat dipped suddenly in the middle, her 
stern and bow rose as suddenly in the air, and 
she disappeared. 

While the Olympia was attending to the Reina 
Cristina the Baltimore directed her particular 
attention to the Castilla, and before our vessel 
had sent in her last gun from the aft turret the 
Spaniard was in flames from stem to stern. It 
was this sudden blaze of the Castilla that led to 
the Spanish report of our use of petroleum 
bombs. It is scarcely necessary to say that it 
was solely due to the explosion of modern shells 
in an antiquated wooden boat. 

Backward and forward we went twice more, 
each time drawing nearer to the devoted Spanish 
fleet, and as each of our vessels came into action 
the same manoeuvre was repeated. First the for- 



60 "With Dewey at Manila. 

ward guns, then the broadside, port or starboard, 
as it might be, and lastly, the stern chasers as 
each vessel passed and gave place to the follow- 
ing ship. The firing of our broadsides was dis- 
tinguished by a well-defined crash that came as 
regularly as clockwork, while the fire of the 
Spanish ships and forts jtroduced a continuous 
roll and rattle. But with all this unbroken roar 
from the enemy afloat and ashore, none of our 
ships was seen to stagger or draw off, and when 
we were near enough to be well in range of the 
Spanish small guns and fighting tops, still the 
American line of ships went on with its deadly 
work as uninterruptedly as though it had been a 
railroad train running on a strict schedule time 
through a grove of yokels armed with putty 
blowers. 

After passing five times in front of the enemy 
and the men having been at their blazing Avork 
for two uninterrupted hours the Commodore con- 
cluded that it would be well to call a halt. By 
this time the smoke of the engagement was hang- 
ing so thick along the shore and over the water 
that not only was it almost impossible to distin- 
gviish ship or fort except by a gi'ay mass and the 
sputter of flame, but we were so smoke-encom- 
passed that it was next to an impossibility to see 
any signals. 



With Dewey at Manila. 61 

"What time is it, Eeese?" asJied the Conimo- 
dore. 

"Seven fortj^-five, sir." 

•'Breakfast time," said the Commodore Avith 
an odd smile ; "run up the signals for 'cease firing' 
and to follow me." 

With that the Olympia's bows were set for a 
run to the eastern side of the bay where the 
storeships lay. As we swung out the Spaniards 
gave a cheer. Badly used up as they were there 
was lots of fight in them yet and they possibly 
imagined as they saw our line forming to with- 
draw that the fight was over. So, too, might the 
Manila gunners on the Luneta fort have done for 
as we passed them they let tiy with their Krupp 
guns. 

"No reply, I suppose, sir?" said Lambertou, 
looking meaningly over to the forward turret, 
while the men at the five-inch guns were cocking 
their eyes inquisitively up at the bridge. 

"Oh, no," said the Commodore, "let them 
amuse themselves if they will. We will have 
plenty of opportunity to burn powder. We 
haven't begun fighting yet." 

And so it proved, for dreadful as these two 
hours had been for the Spaniards they were mild 
in their results compared to that which was to 
come. W'e had but concluded the first round. 



6?' Vvith Dewey at Manila. 



CHAPTEK V. 

ALL HANDS PIPED TO BREAKFAST. 

No sooner had we reached the anchorage 
ground beside the transport ships than the Com- 
modore called all the commanders on board to 
report. Then it was that the wonder of it came 
to pass. 

Not a shij) disabled. 

Not a gun out of order. 

Not a man killed. 

Not a man injured. 

It seemed absolutely impossible, but it was 
the fact. There were, it is true, some rents in 
the rigging, some gashes in the upper works, and 
some scratches along the decks of the shijis ; a few 
of the men were scratched and bruised by 
tumbling over lines and buckets, but that was 
all. I say again, it seemed incredible that this 
should have been the result to us in that awful 
two hours' fight, while to the Spaniards it had 
meant such destruction and desolation. Captain 
after captain reported to the Commodore in the 
same strain. 



With Dewey at Manila. 63 

"All in good shape, sir," reported Captain 
Wildes of the Boston, "except that it was very 
hot." 

"Men tired and ship a little scratched," said 

Captain Dyer of the Baltimore. 

"Everything all right and ready to resume 

business at a moment's notice," said Commander 

Walker of the Concord. 

" 'Out of the jaws of death, out of the gates 

of Hell,' and only a little smoky from the trip," 

said Captain Coghlan of the Kaleigh, who has his 

poets. 

"Poor Randall died from heart-disease as we 
were passing Corregidor," reported Captain 
Hodgson, "but that is the extent of our casual- 
ties." Frank B. Randall was the engineer of the 
McCulloch and had long been subject to heart- 
disease. The suppressed excitement of running 
the gauntlet of the entrance forts in the dark, and 
the heat of the McCulloch 's engine-room, proved 
too much for him, and he died quite suddenly. 
His death, however, can in no way be listed as a 
fatality of the engagement. 

There were many stories told of miraculous 
escapes. A shell entered the Boston 's wardroom 
in which Paymaster Martin sat. He swears that 
the missile was making straight for him and that 
it exploded within five feet of him. It partially 



C)4 With Dewey at Manila. 

wrecked the wardroom, but not a fragment 
struck Martin. 

Down in the wardroom of the Olympia the 
surgeon's operating table had been set out, wait- 
ing for the subjects that never came. Chaplain 
Frazier was down there waiting to comfort or 
administer the last rites to the wounded or dying 
heroes who never materialized. Growing tired 
of waiting for these the chaplain stuck his head 
out of one of the six-pounder gun jiorts, wIk'U a 
shell struck the ship's side some three feet away. 
Mr. Frazier drew his liead back with the rapid- 
ity of a galvanized turtle and so preserved us our 
representative of the Cluuch Militant. And so 
on. 

Funny little finger-points of character were 
thrown out here and there. AVe heard, for in- 
stance, that one lieutenant of the Baltimore, who 
was rather a good young man, too, was heard 
softly swearing to himself the most extravagant 
and outlandish oaths possible, all the time we 
were stealing up the bay; another sang the first 
four bars of "Sweet Marie" over and over again 
with a persistency that Avas maddening; while 
brave old Howard of the Concord put a shade 
over his electric light and read his Bible by it 
while entering the Boca Grande. 

We learned ah^o in this exchange of facts and 



With Dewey at Manila. 65 

ideas that among the men the general impression 
prevailed that we were going to have a battle in 
the dark, with all its shadowy dangers of firing 
at friend or foe. When the real spectacular pro- 
gramme broke on them, the deck officers said the 
relief of the men was positively touching. It 
should be remembered that most of the fellows 
had never been under tire, but when once the 
battle did begin, they, despite the fever of fight 
that was burning in their veins, acted with the 
precision of veterans. Once in it they did not 
want to stop. Down on our decks we could hear 
sulxlued groans, the broad sense of which was, 
"Oil, let's finish it uj),'" but when the news spread 
that the Commodore was only taking wind be- 
tween the rounds, it was no longer possible to 
restrain them, nor for a moment or two was 
there any attempt to exact the strict enforcement 
of discipline. All over the decks the Jackies 
could be seen slapping each other on the back, 
shaking hands and doing a few steps of horn- 
pipe, and this I verily believe not because there 
was not a man missing from any mess, but be- 
cause they were going to fight again. 

There was need, however, for the interlude. 
As I have said the smoke of battle had grown so 
thick that signals could not be seen, and the 
Commodore had no idea of letting anything in- 



Q6 With Dewey at Manila. 

terfere with his programme. He had started out 
to destroy the Spanish fleet and he was going to 
do it. It was turning out to be an easier task 
than he had anticipated, and having rattled his 
antagonist in the first round, he quietly con- 
cluded that there was no occasion to rush matters, 
and that as the men had been fighting on a single 
cup of coffee all round and it was a hot morning, 
it was just as well to haul oflf a little while for 
needed refreshment. To be sure it gave the enemy 
also a breathing sjiell, but the Commodore was 
too generous a lighter to begrudge them that. 
Besides it was a positive mercy to the men in the 
turrets. 

It had been bad enough for us ; breathing the 
powder smoke; clinging to the railings as the 
shi]) shivered and shook after each discharge; 
exposed, of course, to the enemy's fire and 
scampering back and forward as occasion re- 
quired, but we were in the ojien and could, in a 
degree, see what was going on. So, too, could 
the men behind the shield guns; because, not- 
withstanding ]irecautionary orders, as the fight 
proceeded the Jackies persisted in running out 
to watch the effect of their shots and to see gen- 
erally how things were getting along. But think 
what it must have been for the men in the tur- 
rets. Take for instance the forward turret of the 



With Dewey at Manila. 67 

Olympia on that broiling hot Sunday morning in 
the tropics. 

In the turret were the two eight-inch guns and 
twelve Yankee gunners, guns and men occupy- 
ing about every available inch of space. Above 
them and between the guns rose the platform of 
the conning tower where Captain Gridley and his 
assistant perched. The roar of the guns with 
their ear-splitting concussions, and the occa- 
sional crash of a Spanish shell on the turret, and 
the hard, hard work of manning the guns in that 
confined and vibrating air, make up a combination 
of trials of which the man who has not experi- 
enced it can form no possible idea. 

Would you like to know what it is that the 
man behind a turret gun has to do? The turret 
crew is mustered six for each gun, captain, plug- 
man, loader, sponger, liftman, and shellman. 
Each man knows exactly what his duties are and 
has been drilled and drilled into them until he 
has become an automaton— but an automaton 
only so far as his actions are concerned, for back 
of and urging on these lies the great, brave, 
fighting heart of the man. The crew is kept on 
deck up to the very last instant before entering 
the turret and when once there, not a word ex- 
cept that of the division officer is heard. The 
twelve half-naked men stand like statues beside 
the great machines of death. 



C8 With Dewey at Manila. 

The order "Cast loose and ])rovide" is heard 
and the twelve machines si)riug iuto action. The 
breech is opened, elevating gear inspected, lash- 
ings cast off, loading trays inspected, firing 
locks prepared, slides placed, priming wires cor- 
rectly disposed, and all of the delicate parapher- 
nalia that make up a modern gun, inspected. 

Again the men become twelve machines and 
the order "Load" is given. Up from the maga- 
zine is hauled the projectile and placed on the 
loading tray. The great shell is ])ushed home 
and by the time this is done the powder load has 
been placed behind it. Gas checks and screw 
locks are adjusted, the breoch is locked homo, 
the primer inserted, the lanyard hooked and the 
lock cocked. 

Then comes the sighting, the man for this duty 
being one of selection. Sometimes there is a 
man on ship who can point one of these monster 
guns with the accuracy of a Texas ranger, and 
can do nothing else well. Sometimes it is an 
officer who has a good eye, but in every case the 
man at the sight thinks himself, and is the pivot 
man of the engagement. The order to "Fire" 
rings out, the lauj'ard is pulled and the thunder- 
bolt is on its way. 

Six shots a minute blazed out of the Olymiiia's 
turret; the powder smoke poured through the 





i •' BOSTON," U. S. N. 

i Protected Cruiser. Single Screw. Commis.sioned May id, 1887. 19 officers ; 265 men 

Dimensions. 271 feet 3 inches by 42 feet lii inches. Displacement 3000 tons. Speed, 1514 knots 

Main Battery, six 6-inch and two 8-inch breech loading rifles. Secondary Battery, two 6-pounder, two -;. pounder, and two i-pouuder 
apid hre guns, two 47 and two 37-milhmetre Hotchkiss revolving cannon and two gatlings. 



With Dewey at Manila. 69 

portholes in a choking smeach ; with each dis- 
charge the turret shook and rocked as though in 
an earthquake ; the air was shaken with a con- 
tinuous crash and thunder ; but through it all 
the orders ' ' Sponge, ' ' "Load, ' ' "Point, ' ' "Fire, ' ' 
went on and the twelve reeking, choking, quiver- 
ing men went on, with their labors— labors that 
chipped off a year of each man's life every 
instant. No wonder that when the iirst round 
was over the turret-men crept out into the open 
like so manj' victims of a colliery explosion — 
blackened, gasping, air-beating things. All 
honor, then, to "the men behind the guns." 

Preparations for the second round were con- 
ducted in the most business-like fashion. The 
Commodore had decided on three hours' rest, 
and this being ample time for all the preparatory 
work needed there was no hurry, nor was there 
any waste. First of all, all hands were piped to 
breakfast. It was a hearty, cheery feast, and 
while I am not historian enough to have the 
details of every great combat at my pen's point, 
it strikes me that this deliberate hauling off and 
sitting down to breakfast in the middle of a sea- 
fight, with the calm knowledge that the other fel- 
low would not, or could not interrupt it, and 
that when we had finished and the dishes were 
all cleared away we could start in anew and finish 



70 With Dewey at Manila. 

up the job, stands as a situation unique in the 
chronicles of maritime warfare. Here were two 
fleets in deadly opposition. Between the lleets 
there was a fight in progress on whose upshot 
the history of two nations in the Orient de- 
pended. One fleet lay over in the shelter of 
forts that were still a fighting force, with con- 
fusion aboard and a desperate outlook ahead; 
while the other fleet lay over here, just out of 
range, unconcernedly eating breakfast. 

Breakfast being over there was a general clean- 
up of men, decks and guns, the ammunition 
rooms were refilled, fleet ordei's issued and the 
engines inspected. 

"Everything all right, Lamberton?" asked the 
Commodore. 

"Everything, I believe, sir," replied Lamber- 
ton. 

"Very well. Call to ipiarters and get under 
way." 

The boatswains' whistles and the nuirine ilruuis 
shrilled and duljbetl. And at 10 :45 every man 
was at his post and we were off for the second 
round. 



AVitli Dewey at Manila. 71 



CHAPTEK VI. 

THE SECOND ROUND. 

Before Captain Neliemiah M. Dyer of the Bal- 
timore went over the ship's side to his launch I 
noticed that he was talking very earnestly to the 
Commodore. These two had been friends for 
many years. Both New Euglanders, both grad- 
uates in the hard school of experience. Dyer 
had never been to Annapolis, but he had served 
on land and sea. He had shown during the Civil 
AVar what wonderfully effective things could be 
done by a fleet of gunboats and though no acade- 
mician was as good a tighter as the president of 
any Board of Strategy. The talk between the two 
men ended with a nod of ac(iuiescence on the 
part of the Commodore followed by a handshake. 
Captain Dyer had not reached his ship before we 
knew what the subject of the conversation had 
been and what its result. For, turning to his 
flag officer, the Commodore instructed him to run 
up the signals that the Baltimore would lead in 
the second round. 

The programme for the second act of tbe 



T2 With Dewey at Manila. 

tragedy, — and liere again everything was laid 
down -with the exactness of a time table, — was that 
we were to linish up the enemy 's fleet, taking 
one ship after another, and then attend to the 
forts. Again we sailed around to the Manila 
channel, and as we drew near the Spaniards we 
saw that the Cristina, the Castilla, and the trans- 
port Mindanao, which latter had been beached 
about midway between Cavite and Manila, were 
all ablaze, and that their crews were busy as so 
many ants tr^'ing to put out the flames. 

The condition of the Si)anish flagship was 
most pitiable. Her duel with the Ob'mpia, and 
the raking w^hich she had received when turning 
to seek cover, I have described. Every attempt 
had been made during the breathing spell to put 
her into some sort of shape, but evidently without 
success; for before we had commenced firing the 
second time we saw Admiral Montojo transfer- 
ring his flag from the Cristina to the Isla de 
Cuba. Others saw it also, and from the McCul- 
loch came her launch shooting and snipping 
through the bay and making for the Olympia. 
She had on board Lieutenants Calkins and Nel- 
son, who came with the petition to the Commo- 
dore that he w^ould allow them to make a dash 
for the admiral's gig and capture the Spaniard 
in transit. The Commodore, however, had to 



Witli Dewey at Manila. 73 

refuse, as he knew that should such an attempt 
be made every Spanish gun would be turned 
upon the launch and she would simply be blown 
out of the water. 

The Baltimore, following Captain Dyer's 
straight-to-the-point tactics, headed for the 
Cristina and Austria. As she came within range 
she caught all of the Spanish fire that was left 
on board those two ships. It seemed that in their 
desperation the Spaniards fired better at this 
time than they had in the earlier morning, for 
one of the foreigner's shells exploded on the Balti- 
more's deck wounding five men with the splin- 
ters. No reply came from the Baltimore. A 
few minutes passed and another shell plunked on 
the Baltimore's decks, and three other men were 
hit. Still the Baltimore did not reply. Shells 
plunged about her until she seemed plowing 
through a park of fountains. Then, when she 
reached about a three-thousand-yard range, she 
swung and poured a broadside into the Eeina 
Cristina. I really believe that every shot must 
have told, for the former flagship seemed literally 
to crumble at the discharge. The smoke clouds 
hid everything for a minute or two, but when 
they lifted we saw the Cristina blow up, and the 
waters about her beaten with a rain of descend- 
ing fragments and men. Under that shrieking, 



T4 With Dewey at Manila. 

roaring discharge of tlie Baltimore's, Captain 
Cadarso and many of his men were killed. 
When the rain of her fragments had ceased the 
Cristina settled and sank, the remainder of her 
crew jumping overboard and swinnning for the 
nearest consort. 

The Spanish navy being less the Cristina, the 
Baltimore then turned her attention to the San 
Juan de Austria, the Olympiaand Kuleigh steam- 
ing ui> to complete the destruction in as merci- 
fully brief a time as possible. The three cruisers 
poured a continuous stream of deadly steel into 
the Spaniard, which rocked umhr the smashing. 
The Spaniard replied as best she might, but in 
the midst of it all there came a roar that drowned 
all previous noises. A shell from the Kaleigh 
had struck the Spaniard's magazine and exploded 
it. Up shot the Austria's decks in the llaming 
volcano, andsoterriric was the ex])losion that tlie 
flying fragments of the cruiser actually tore 
away all the upper works of the gunboat El 
Correo which lay beside her. The Austria was a 
sinking wreck and El Correo was so nearly one 
that as a conp de grace the Petrel steamed up 
close to the Spanish gunboat and put her out of 
misery and existence. 

A gunboat, which we learned afterward was 
the General Lezo, had been quite active during 



With Dewey at Manila. 75 

the cannonade on the Don Juan de Austria, and 
Commander Walker of the Concord, seeing this, 
turned his attention to the small Spaniard, and 
with a few well-directed shells soon silenced 
her. She made for the shore, but before she 
had reached }^ was ablaze, her crew taking to the 
water. 

The cruisers Velasco and Castilla were the nest 
of the enemy's ships to be wiped out. The 
Boston gave the Velasco special attention. Cap- 
tain Wildes, still fanning himself vigorously, 
swinging his ship around until he could give the 
Spaniard a broadside. When he had tired the 
Velasco listed heavily to port, showing the 
jagged rents in her starboard side as she did so. 
then careened to the starboard and went down 
smoking, with barely time enough for her crew 
to throw over their boats and make for the 
shore. The Castilla had been set on tire in the 
first onslaught, and when the Concord and Balti- 
more poured their tremendous weight of shells 
into her, she was scuttled in order to prevent the 
magazine from exploding. 

Every ship in the Spanish fleet, with one ex- 
ception fought most valiantly, but to the Don 
Antonio de Ulloa and her commander Robion 
should be given the palm for that sort of desper- 
ate courage and spirit which leads a man to die 



Y6 With Dewey at Manila. 

fighting. The flagship and Boston were the exe- 
cutioners. Under their shells the Ulloa was 
soon burning in half a dozen places; but her 
fighting crew gave no signs of surrender. Shot 
after shot struck the Sjianiard's hull, until it 
was riddled like a sieve. Shell after shell swejit 
her upper decks, until under the aAvful fire all of 
her ujiper guns were useless; but there was no 
sign of surrender. The main deck crew escaped, 
but the captain and his officers clung to their 
wreck. On the lower deck her gun crews stuck 
to their jtosts like the heroes they were. As shot 
after shot struck the shivering hulk, and still her 
lower guns answered back as best they might, it 
seemed as though it was imjtossible to kill her. 
At last we noticed her in the throes, that sicken- 
ing unmistakable lurch of a sinking ship. Her 
commander noticed it, too ; still there was no 
surrender. Instead, he nailed the Si)anish 
ensign to what was left of the mast and the Don 
Antonio de Ulloa went down, not only with her 
colors flying, but also with her lower guns still 
roaring defiance. It was a brave death and I am 
sure ever man in the squadron would have liked 
to have shaken Commander Kobion by the hand, 
Don though he be of the same nation that bred 
Weyler. 

Just as the j)icture of the Ulloa's end is luridly 



With Bewe}'^ at Manila. 77 

bright, so that of another ship is gloomily- 
dark. For the sake of her gallant mates, this 
ship shall be nameless. She had hauled down 
her colors about the same time that the Ulloa had 
refused to do so and had gone down with them all 
a-llutter. A boat's crew from the McCulloch was 
signaled to go and take possession of this name- 
less ship, when to our amazement she opened tire 
on the approaching gig. The ensign stood up iu 
the stern in open-mouthed wonder at such a 
piece of treachery, but kei)t his boat along her 
course. The incident had not passed unob- 
served by the squadron, however, and the Span- 
iard's fate was a swift one. There was no need 
for the Commodore to fly a signal, for it was as 
with a common impulse that every one of our 
vessels stopped firing at the enemy in general 
and directed every available shot at that Si)aniard 
in i)artic\ilar. The bay leaped up and foamed 
around the traitorous vessel as though it had 
been struck by the whip end of a Texas tornado, 
and when the waters were at rest again the Span- 
iard had vanished as completely as though that 
tornado had carried her bodily into a neighbor- 
ing State. 

Of course there were other incidents in this 
resumption of the fight, which I have referred to 
as the second round, but as the firing grew faster 



78 With Dewey at Manila. 

and more furious aiul as the smoke settled down 
again it was again almost impossible to distinguish 
exact and particuhir acts. Shij) after ship was 
sunk or burned, until poor okl Don Patricio 
Montojoy Parason, looking around liiiu and see- 
ing but the shattered and bhickcncd remnants of 
his Meet, while on the Ishi de Cuba the guns stood 
useless and the decks deserted, hauled down 
his colors and, together with the surviving Span- 
iards, hastily escajied from the sinking and burn- 
ing hulk, admiral and otficers alike leaving 
behind them all their personal proi)erty and val- 
luibles. Once on shore Montojo, with his staff, 
made the best of his way to Manila; in the com- 
pany, I presume, of those who had driven out to 
see the sudden end of the Yankee. 

The fleet having been disposed of, our vessels 
next turned their attention to the batteries, 
which still kept liring, notwithstanding Monto- 
jo's surrender. The most pertinacious of the 
forts was one low down on Sangley Point, which 
lies about opposite to the Cavite spit, and 
which was armed with two Hontorio guns, which 
I imagine must have been taken from the fleet. 
There were some pretty good gunners behind 
the Hontorios, one of the shells striking the 
Boston and another smashing the whaleboat of 
the Raleigh. We managed to cripple one of 




" RALEIGH," U. S. N. 

Protected Cruiser. Twin screw. Keel laid 1SS9. 20 officers; 293 men. 

Dimensions, 300 feet by 42 feet; Draft, 18 feet. Displacement, 3213 tons. Speed, 19 knots. 

Main Battery, one 6-inch gun and ten 5-iuch rapid fire guns. Secondary Battery, eight 6-pounder and four i-pounder rapid fire guns, 
ind eleven gathngs. 



with Bewey at Manila. T'J 

these guns, but it was not until the Raleigh had 
sailed in to about one thousand yards and had 
killed six of the gunners that the second was 
silenced. 

One after the other of the remaining shore 
batteries was settled, and then at 12:45 came 
what may be called the knockout blow. The 
bastions of the Cavite forts had been crumbling 
under the shells of the Boston, Baltimore, and 
Concord, while the Raleigh, Olympia, and Petrel 
had been devoting themselves to the reduction of 
the arsenal. After half an hour's fight of this 
sort the Cavite gunners evidently became de- 
moralized and began to fire wildly. Those guns 
left in position continued firing, however, until 
at their back there was a thunderous mar followed 
by a heart-shaking concussion. A shell from either 
the Olympia or the Petrel, and the honor is still 
a matter of dispute between Gunner Corcoran of 
the flagship and Gunner Yining of the gunboat, 
had landed in the arsenal magazine. With the 
upward rush of flames, fragments and dead, the 
heart of the Spaniard went out of him, a white 
flag was run up at the Cavite citadel and the 
battle of Manila was over. 

"Up went the Commodore's signals to "Cease 
firing," but before they could be read the Petrel 
had sent in what was the last shot of the battle. 



80 ^Yith Dewey at .^^anila. 

Again the signal to sail hack to the rendezvous 
was flown, but this time as we passed Manila the 
great Krupp guns at the Lnneta fort were silent. 
Even those gunners had learned their lesson. 
^Yhen we reached the Xanshan and Zafiro, the 
Olympia halted and all the ships steaujed slowly 
past her, with the men at quarters cheering and 
saluting. Then each ship fell in line and was 
saluted and cheered by the others and took its 
turn in cheering l)ack, but when all were in line 
except the Petrel, and that perky little craft 
steamed hy, the rest of the s<|uadrt)n so roared 
and yelled at her that Captain Wood l)lushcd a 
fine purple under his tan, and all the Jackies of 
the gunboat strutted and bowed back like so 
many ctUKiuering heroes. 

They deserved it all, for from first to last the 
little Petrel had been a David in the tight. The 
Commodore had noticed that three smaller ves- 
sels of the enemy were making up to the head of 
Cavite Bay and had sigjialed her with the Boston 
and Concord to go after them. The two cruisers 
had, however, found the waters of the inner 
harbor too shallow for them and had returned, 
but the Petrel with her light draft had been 
enabled to follow iiuite closely into shore. One 
of the small ships in there was the gunboat Mar- 
ques del Duero, and getting the one-thousand- 



With Dewey at Manila. 81 

yard range the Petrel fireil at her with the swift- 
ness and accuracy of a first-chxss target drill. 
The Duero having been disposed of, the little 
Petrel then took up the fate of the two gunboats, 
the Quiros and Yilhilobos. The Spaniards could 
not understand how one little gunboat could 
make things so desperately hot for them, and in 
order to solve the problem they scuttled and set 
fire to their boats and then went ashore to think 
it over. 

It was the Petrel, too, that on returning from 
this little adventure ran across the store-ship 
Manila hiding behind a convenient wharf and 
captured her, the prize being valued at half a 
million dollars, including six hundred tons of 
coal. 

Again the commanders Avere called over to the 
flagship and again stock was taken. Again came 
the reports: not a gun overthrown, not a vessel 
disabled, not a man killed. There was not so 
much of the ecstatic on the receipt of this second 
series of reports as there had been on the receipt 
of the first. We were getting used to it — get- 
ting accustomed to this laying out of the other 
party without receiving a scratch. Scarcely 
that, however, for the two shots that had struck 
the Baltimore had wounded two officers and six 
men. Lieutenant F. W. Kellogg, Ensign U. E. 



82 With Dewey at Manila. 

Erwin, and the enlisted men Barlow, Budinger, 
Covert, O'Keefe, Eeeeiardilli and Snelgrove con- 
stituted our list of wounded, but their injuries 
were so slight that not one of theui would stay 
in the sick-bay. As it was, six out of these eight 
were literally wounded by our own annnunition, 
for the first Spanish shell that struck the Balti- 
more exploded a box of three-pound ammunition, 
and it was the flight of these that knocked our 
men down. 

And on the Spanish side it had been a defeat 
that was as crushing and fatal as our victory had 
been decisive and easy. The flrst round bad 
meant confusion and dismay to the Spaniards; 
the second round had brought them extinction, 
annihilation. The Spanish fleet had indeed been 
destroyed. The fate of the Spanish fleet, to- 
gether with their commanders, in list form, is as 
follows : 

CRUISERS. 

Reina Cristina, Captain Cadarso, sunk. 

Castilla, Captain Martin de Olivia, sunk and 
burned. 

Don Antonio de Ulloa, Commander Robion, 
sunk and burned. 

Don Juan de Austria, Commander Concha, 
burned. 

Isla de Luzon, Commander Barreto, burned. 



With Dewey at Manila. 83 

Isla de Cuba, Commander Kigalado, burned. 
Velasco, Captain Reboul, burned and sunk. 

GUNBOATS. 

Marques del Duero, Captain Morens, burned. 
General Lezo, Captain Beneveste, burned. 
El Correo, Captain Eccudero, burned. 
Quiros and Villalobos, scuttled and set on fire 
by the Spaniards. 

TRANSPORTS. 

Mindanao, run ashore to save from sinking — 
burned. 

Manila, captured. 

The two gunboats which were destroyed be- 
longed to the transport Mindanao. And in addi- 
tion to this list there were some small steamers 
which were scuttled by the Spaniards and whose 
names are yet unknown. The loss of life on the 
Spanish side will also remain unknown for some 
time at least, I imagine. At first we heard that 
one hundred and thirty were killed and ninety 
wounded on board the flagship, chiefly in her 
duel with the Olympia; that when the Cavite 
arsenal exploded it killed forty, and that alto- 
gether there were about one thousand killed and 
wounded. Montojo's estimate as reported to 
Governor-General Augusti was : 



8i With Dewey at Manila. 

On the ships. In the forts. 

Killed, 400 24 

Wounded, 60 150 



4G0 174 

The monetary loss to Simin must have been 
many millions, — I hear it placed at from $(5,000,- 
000 to $10,000,000— but more than all was the fact 
that in losin^r this battle she lost the control of 
the Philippines and her position as the mistress 
of an Asiatic colony. 



With Dewev at Manila. 85 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 

Though the fight was won much remained to 
be done, and theOommodore set about doing that 
in the same (luiet, matter of-fact way that had 
characterized his conduct of the victory. We 
knew that the people at Washington would be 
anxious to know the result of the expedition and 
that there was a cable landing at Manila over 
which, we felt confident, August! was crowding 
messages to Madrid giving his version of the 
afiEair. After the second rest, therefore, the Com- 
modore sent word to the governor-general by 
the British consul who had come to visit us, that 
Manila was in a state of blockade; that he, the 
Commodore, proposed to occupy Cavite; that if 
a single shot w^ere fired against his ships lie 
would destroy every battery around the bay; 
and that unless he were allowed to use the cable 
he would cut it. The cable people were willing 
to transmit our messages, but the governor- 
general ordered the officials neither to receive 
nor transmit anything from us. Accordingly 



86 With Dewey at Manila. 

the Commodore cut the cable on Monday after- 
noon, and cut it, too, just as a message was being 
sent by Augusti that the Spanish fleet had been 
"disabled," and that "the Americans had with- 
drawn to bury their dead." 

AVe took a rest on Sunday evening, but 
Monday was a busy day for us. Early in the 
morning a tug came steaming up the bay, bear- 
ing a flag of truce from the commandant of Cor- 
regidor. Accompanying the flag of truce was an 
offer from the commandant to surrender. The 
tug was sent over to the Baltimore with instruc- 
tions to steam ahead and the cruiser was 
dispatched to take possession of the entrance 
forts or to blow them into the air at the least 
sign of treachery or resistance. There was no 
necessity for this i)recaution, for when Corregi- 
dor was reached the commandant was found 
alone, his men having deserted and the guns 
having been overthrown. 

About the same time Commander Lamberton 
was ordered to go and take possession of Cavite 
arsenal. It was decided to use the Petrel for 
this work, and the gunboat ran in to about 
five hundred yards and then halted in amaze. 
The Avhite flag had been hoisted on Sunday after- 
noon following the explosion of the magazine, it 
will be remembered, and Lamberton naturally 



AVith Dewey at Manila. 87 

imagined that this had indicated an uncondi- 
tional surrender. Instead of a deserted place, 
howevei-, he saw that the landing was crowded 
with armed sailors. In view of this new situa- 
tion the Petrel's guns were trained on the 
arsenal, and Lamberton, together M'ith \Yood of 
the Petrel, took a launch for the landing place 
and left instructions that unless they returned in 
an hour the gunboat was to open on the arsenal. 
AYhen Lamberton and AYood landed they were 
met by Captain Sostoa of the Spanish navj-, who 
informed Lamberton that in the absence of the 
admiral, who had retired to Manila, he was in 
command. The armed Si)anish sailors closed 
around the party and our men and Sostoa 
marched to the arsenal headquarters. 

"May I ask, captain," said Lamberton, "why 
your men are under arms after yesterday's sur- 
render?" 

"There was no surrender," replied Sostoa. 

This answer made Lamberton think pretty 
quickly and he began to see that there were more 
ramifications to the Spanish character than he 
had dreamed of. 

"But," said he, "the white flag was hoisted." 

"Yes, " replied Sostoa, "but not as a surren- 
der, only as a token of truce during which we 



(/ 



88 With Dewe}^ at Manila. 

luigbt remove our "n'omen aiul children to a place 
of safety. ' ' 

"But, captain," said Laniberton, as evenly as 
he could, "an arsenal is not exactly the place for 
women and children in times of Avar. They 
should have been removed before the bombard- 
ment began." 

"Ah, well, you see," said Captain Sostoa, 
with a shrug of deprecation, "you Americans 
came in to visit us at such an extremely early 
hour that we had no time to remove our women 
and children. If j-ou had begun the fight at a 
less unreasonable hour " 

"Excuse me, captain," said Lamberton, Avho 
was beginning to feel the heat of the morning, 
"you tired the tirst shot. But there is no use 
talking of past events, nor is it my place to do 
so. I am sent here as the re]iresentative of Com- 
modore Dewey of the United States Asiatic Scjuad- 
ron to take possession of this arsenal, and my 
further instructions are that all Spaniards, whom 
I tind here, must surrender their arms and jier- 
sons as prisoners of war. If this is not done, 
and done quickly, the engagement will be 
renewed. " 

To this direct message Sostoa evasively replied 
that he could do nothing without consulting his 
superior, and upon Lamberton 's telling him that 



With Dewey at Manila. 89 

he, Sostoa, would be regarded as sufficiently 
representative, the elusive captain requested 
that the terms of surrender might be put down 
in writing. Lamberton glanced at his watch. 
Forty of the sixty minutes had elapsed and in 
twenty more the Petrel's guns would be bang- 
ing away, and while Lamberton and Wood knew 
very well what the issue of the new fight would 
be, so far as the fleet and arsenal were con- 
cerned, they had an uneasy misgiving that their 
share in it would be a decidedly unknown quan- 
tit3'. It was with no unnecessary search for 
phrases, therefore, that Lamberton wrote down 
these terms : 

"Without further delay all Spanish officers 
and men must be withdrawn, and no buildings or 
stoi-es must be injured. As Commodore Dewey 
does not Avish further hostility with the Spanish 
naval forces, the Spanish officers will be paroled 
and the forces at the arsenal will deliver all their 
small arms." 

The conversation had been in Spanish but the 
conditions were written in English, and Sostoa 
wanted them translated and clearly explained. 
Again Lamberton looked at his watch. Five 
minutes of the hour only remained. Things 
were getting critical. Sostoa was pleading for 
more time when Lamberton broke in on him. 



90 With Dewey at Manila. 

"Excuse me, captain," he said, "but there is 
an absolute reason why I should return at once 
to tbe vessel. I will give you until noon and if 
on that hour the white liag is not attain hoisted 
over this arsenal we shall again open tire. Good- 
morning. " 

It was not far to the landing, but both Lam- 
berton and AVood agreed that the effort they 
made to repress all outward evidence of haste, 
coupled with their knowledge that if they did 
not get on board the launch and steam away 
during the next minute or two they would not 
get there at all, made up a situation of what the 
dramatist calls "suppressed emotion," which 
was very exciting as long as it lasted. Thej' 
reached the landing aiul the launch just in time; 
for as they put oft" from the steps they could see 
the men moving into position around the Petrel's 
guns in a way that meant mischief. 

The situation had its comedy ending. Cap- 
tain Sostoa did not wait for noon, but hoisted 
the white flag at a quarter to eleven ; and when 
Lamberton returned to take possession he found 
that that punctilious Don had marched off to 
Manila with every man, and that every man had 
taken his rifle. 

No sooner had the Spaniards evacuated Cavite 
than the natives, who must have been lurking in 







"CONCORD," U.S.N. 

Gunboat. Twin screw. Commissioned February 14th, 1891. 13 officers; 180 men. 
Dimensions, 230 feet by 36 feet; Draft, 14 feet. Displacement, 1710 tons. Speed, 16'/^ knots. 

Main Battery, six 6inch breech-loading rifles. Secondary Battery, two 6-pounder and two 3-pounder rapid fire guns, two 37-millimetre 
otchkiss revolving cannon and two gatlings. 



With Dewey at Manila. 91 

crowds among the bushes aud in the back 
streets, swarmed into the place, bent on thieving. 
Our marines were instantly ordered on shore for 
guard and police duty, but before they were 
lauded the nimble-fingered Philippino had done 
a fair day 's work in the ransacking line. Even 
the arsenal and hospitals were threatened, and 
those in charge of the latter must indeed have 
thought they had lit on hard times when the 
American marines landed. The Philippino they 
understood, but the American they seemed to 
regard as a monster of unknown possibilities. 
As our men landed they were met by a long pro- 
cession of priests and nuns wlio begged them not 
to massacre the wounded in the hospitals. 

The petition was incomprehensible until we 
got a copy of the governor-general's proclama- 
tion which he had issued before the fight. In 
this extraordinary document he had told the 
jteople that we who were coming were the ex- 
cresences of the world, that our favorite occupa- 
tion was the pillaging of clnirches and the sack 
of nunneries, that our favorite amusement was 
that of torturing our prisoners, aud that Avhen 
this failed us we turned our attention, as a sort 
of side entertainment, to the desecration of 
graveyards. In a word that we were a mixture 
of Frankenstein aud Moloch, compared to Avhich 



92 ^Vith Dowey at Manila. 

the King of Benin of the City of Blood was a 
daisy-cropping lamb. When Ave saw the rows 
of wounded Spaniards laid out in the hospital 
and crowding the cathedral, we came to the 
conclusion that for gunners who had never been 
in action our men had done wonders. "We 
gathered an estimate, too, of the number of 
wounded which not even the Spanish official 
I'eports convinced us were excessive. 

The wounded were taken to Manila under the 
Red Cross, and since then we have been busy 
rendering Cavite habitable and clean. We have 
been busy, too, raising what guns we could, 
cleaning up the harbor and making things gen- 
erally ship-shape. 

We know, of course, that there is much yet to 
do. Spain's power in the Philippines has been 
crushed, but it has not been extinguished. The 
subjugation of Manila and the occupation of 
these islands, the deportation of the Spanish 
troo])s from the different posts at Boilo and Guam 
and the establishment of a new form of govern- 
ment, have all to be accomplished. There is much 
indeed to do and much help from the strong hands 
at home is needed to do it. And so it is that 
while we do not sit idly by, but find plenty of 
needed hard work in this hot and steamy bay, 
we keep our lights burning at night and our 



With Dewey at Manila. 93 

eyes turned each moruing up to the Boca Grande, 
through which we know the big ships and the 
fighting men will come that shall enable us to 
finish well that great work which Dewey has so 
nobly begun. 



ADDENDUAV 



With Dewey at Manila. 97 



KEAR-ADMIRAL DEWEY'S EECORD. 

Rear-Admiral George Dewey, like many an- 
other high officer in the United States Navy, was 
born and bred in the country, and knew little of 
the sea until after his appointment to a naval 
cadetship in 1854. He is a Vermonter by birth, 
and is accredited to that State in the records of 
the Naval Academy, at Annapolis. He was grad- 
uated in 1858 in a class which included a great 
number of young men who have since distin- 
guished themselves in the naval service. He 
first saw service aboard the old steam frigate 
Wabash, then attached to the Mediterranean 
squadron. A cruise of about one year in her 
well fitted him for the stirring work which time 
and events cutout for him at a little later period. 

He received his commission as lieutenant April 
19, 18G1, and was immediately assigned to the 
steamship Mississippi, which had been attached 
to the West Gulf squadron. On that craft he 
got his first baptism of fire. The Mississippi was ^ 
a part of Farragut's fleet which forced an en- 
trance to the Mississippi Eiver, and afterward 



98 With Dewey at Manila. 

ran between torrents of shot and shell just prior 
to the surrender of New Orleans. 

Nothing more daring was done on the water 
during the civil war than Admiral Tarragut's 
attempt to run past the formidable batteries at 
Tort Hudson. In the narrowest part of the 
channel heavy guns were mounted on both sides 
of the stream, and several of the invading ships 
in trying to force a passage almost scraped the 
muzzles of the guns. The Mississippi in the 
thick fog and smoke ran aground lower down. 

One of the enemy's batteries was close by, and 
from it within less than thirty minutes no less 
than two hundred and fifty solid shots were 
hurled at the helpless little sloop. tSeeing that 
there was no hope for them on board and that 
the Mississippi Avas being riddled from stem to 
stern, all hands took to the small boats, and most 
of them escaped to the shore opposite the bat- 
tery. Lieutenant Dewey was one of those who 
got awaj^ in safety. 

His next assignment was to the steam gun- 
boat Agawan, of the North Atlantic blockading 
squadron. He participated in several engage- 
ments below Donaldsouville, La., in July, 1S63, 
and in two of the memorable attacks on Fort 
Fisher, in December of the following year. 

He was commissioned lieutenant-commander 



With Dewe\' at :Manila. 90 

March 3, I860, and attached to the European 
squadron, first serving on the Kearsarge and 
then on the flagship Colorado. Returning to tlie 
home station in 1868 he was ordered to report 
for duty at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. 
He remained there one year and was then given 
command of the Narragansett, detailed for 
special service. April 13, 1872, he was commis- 
sioned as commander, and for three years was 
engaged in surveying in the Pacific. In 1876 
he was appointed lighthouse inspector, and later 
became secretary of the Lighthouse Board. He 
commanded the Juniata on the Asiatic station in 
1882, and in 1884 was promoted to be captain 
and phiced in charge of the Dolphin, one of the 
four ships Avhich formed the original "White 
Squadron." A year later he was in command 
of the Pensacola, of the European s(iuadrou, and 
continued at that post until 1888, when he be- 
came chief of the Bureau of Equipment and 
Recruiting. Feburary 28, 1896, he was commis- 
sioned as commodore, and at about the same 
time was made i)resideut of the Board of Inspec- 
tion and Survey. This place he held until he 
was given command of the Asiatic station. 

Altogether, Commodore Dewey has seen almost 
sixteen years of service at sea, while he has done 
duty on shore twenty-three and a half years. He 



100 With Dewey at Manila. 

is one of tlie strictest disciplinarians in the navy, 
and for that reason is not overpopular with under 
officers and crew. Men who have served with 
him do not hesitate to say that he is a born 
strategist and fighter, a clear-headed and skillful 
commanding officer. He is a firm believer in 
the truth of the old maxim "Nothing venture, 
nothing have," and has always been ranked 
among the most daring of American naval 
officers. But with his readiness to take chances 
there has always been exhibited the saving quali- 
ties of good judgment and horse sense. No 
better man could have been found to undertake 
the task of annihilating the Spanish Asiatic 
squadron in its stronghold. 

Socially Commodore Dewey is much liked. 
He is one of the fines't-looking men in the navy, 
which is saying a great deal, and has sometimes 
been known as "Gentleman George." He is a 
great clubman and a huntsman of no mean repute. 
In riding to the hounds he has often distinguished 
himself, while as a daring horseman he probal)ly 
has no superior in this country. He is also an 
all-round athlete. He is a widower. 

He received the public thanks of the Congress 
of the United States May 10, and was promoted 
by the President to the rank of rear-admiral 
May 13. 



Acting Rear Admiral GEORGE DeweV 

Commander-in-Chief 

Commander B. P. Lamberter, Chief-of-Staff 

Lieutenant L. M. Brumby, Flag Lieutenant 

Ensign H. H. CAtDWEtL, Secretary 



OLYMPIA {Flagship) 

Captain, Charles V. Gridley 
Lieut. -Commander, S. C. Paine. 
Lieutenants : C. G. Calkins, V. S. Nelson, 
G. S. Morgan. S. M. Strite 

Ensigns: M. M. Taylor, F. B. Upham, W. P. 
Scott, A. G. Kavanagh, H. V. Butler. 

Med. Inspector, A. F. Price ; Passed Ass't Sur- 
geon, J. E. Page; Ass't Surgeon, C H. KindlE- 
BERGER ; Pay Inspector, D. A. Smith ; Chief En- 
gineer, J. EntwistlE; Ass't Engineer, E. H. 
DeLany ; Ass't Engineer, J. F. Marshall, Jr ; 
Chaplain. J. B. Frazier ; Captain of Marines, W. 
P. Biddle; Gunner, L. J. G. Kuhlwein; Carpen- 
ter, W. Macdonald; Acting Boatswain, E. J. 

NORCOTT 



TIIl'l r.OSTON 



Captain, F. \Vii,dhs 
Lieut. -Coinniaiuler, J. A. Norris 

Lieutenants: J. Gibson 

W. L. Howard 

Ensigns: S. S. Robinson 

L. H. EVERHART 

J. S. Doddridge 

Surgeon, M. H. Crawford; Ass't Surgeon, 
R. S. Balkeman; Paymaster, J. R. Martin; 
Chief Engineer, G. B. Ransom; Ass't Engineer, 
I,. J. James; First Lieut. of-Ma'^ines, R McM. 
DrTToN; Gunner, J. C Evans; Carpenter, I. H. 

IIlI.TON. 



U. S. STEAMSHIP RALEIGH 

Captain, J. B. Coghlan 
Lieut. -Commander, F. Singer 
Lieutenants: W. Winder 

B. Tappan 
H. Rodman 

C. B. Morgan 
Ensigns: F. L. Chidwick 

P. Babin 

Surgeon, E. H. Marstei.i.Er; Ass't Surgeon, 
D. N. Carpenter; Passed Ass't Paymaster, 
S. R. Heap; Chief Engineer, F. H. Bailey; 
Passed Ass't Engineer, A. S. Halstead ; Ass't 
Engineer, J. R. Brady; First Lieut, of Marines, 
T. C. Treadwell; Acting Gunner, G. D. John- 
stone ; Acting Carpenter, T. E. K11.EV. 



U. S. STEAMSHIP BAL TIMORE 



Captain, N. M. Dyer 
Lieut. -Commander, G. Blocklinger 
Lieutenants: W. Braunersreuther 
F. W. Kellogg 
J. M. Ellicott 
C. S. Stan WORTH 
Ensigns G. H. Havward 

M. J. McCORMACK 

U. E. Irwin 
Naval Cadets, D. W. WURTSBAUGH, I. Z. 
Wettensoll, cm. Tozer, T. a. Karney; 
Passed Ass't Surgeon, F. A. Heiseler ; Ass't 
Surgeon, R. K. Smith ; Pay Inspector, E. 
Bellows; Chief Engineer, A. C. Engard; 
Ass't Engineers, H. B. Price, H. I. CONE ; 
Naval Cadet (engineer), C. P. BuRT; Chaplain, 
T. S. K. Freeman ; First Lieut, of Marines, D. 
Williams; Acting Boatswain, H. R. Brayton; 
Gunner, L. J. Connelly; Acting Gunner, L. J. 
Waller; Carpenter, O. B.\Th. 



THE CONCORD 



V 



Commander, A. S. Wai,keR 
Lieut-Commander, G. P. CoLVOCORESES 
Lieutenants: T. B. Howard 

P. W. HOURIGAN 

Ensigns: L. A, KiSER 

W. C. Davidson 
O. S. Knepper 

Passed Ass't Surgeon, R. G. Broderick ; 
Passed Ass't Paymaster, E. D. Ryan; Chief 
Engineer, Richard Inch ; Passed Ass't En- 
gineer, H. W. Jones; Assisiant Engineer, Ei 
H. Dunn. 



THE PETREL 



Commander, E. P. Wood 

Lieutenants: E. M. Hughes 

B. A. FiSKE 
A. N. Wood 

C. P. Plunkett 

Ensigns: G. L. Fermier 

W. S. Montgomery 

Passed Ass't Surgeon, C. D. Brownell ; 
Assistant Paymaster, G. G. Siebei,LS ; Passed 
Assistant Engineer, R. T. Hai,!,. 







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